[East Anglian]Illustrated edition of an important document in the economic and social history of Georgian England. James Oakes was active in local politics, and knew, or was related to, most of the businessmen, clergy and parish gentry in and around Bury. In 1778 he began to write the diaries which he kept faithfully for the next 49 years. Their span - half a century covering the American Revolution and the great wars with revolutionary and Napoleonic France -makes them a unique reflection and measure of the industry and trade, banking and politics of a small East Anglian town, a microcosm of English provincial society.JANE FISKE gained her doctorate at the University of East Anglia for her study of Oakes' diaries.