Invisible Agents by
It would be easy for the modern reader to conclude that women had no place in the world of early modern espionage, with a few seventeenth-century women spies identified and then relegated to the footnotes of history. If even the espionage carried out by Susan Hyde, sister of Edward Hyde, Earlof Clarendon, during the turbulent decades of civil strife in Britain can escape the historiographer's gaze, then how many more like her lurk in the archives?Nadine Akkerman's search for an answer to this question has led to the writing of Invisible Agents, the very first study to analyse the role of early modern women spies, demonstrating that the allegedly-male world of the spy was more than merely infiltrated by women. This compelling andground-breaking contribution to the history of espionage details a series of case studies in which women - from playwright to postmistress, from lady-in-waiting to laundry woman - acted as spies, sourcing and passing on confidential information on account of political and religious convictions or toobtain money or power.The struggle of these women to construct credibility in their own time is mirrored in their invisibility in modern historiography. Akkerman has immersed herself in archives, libraries, and private collections, transcribing hundreds of letters, breaking cipher codes and their keys, studying invisibleinks, and interpreting riddles, acting as a modern-day spymistress to unearth plots and conspiracies that have long remained hidden by history.
An Ordered Society by
Himalayan Households is a comprehensive study of the cultural ecology, demography, and domestic organization of the Tamang, the largest Tibeto-Burman speaking population of Nepal. A people on the cusp of a major socio-economic transformation.
New worlds, lost worlds : the rule of the Tudors, 1485-1603 by
Written by leading international scholars, Twentieth Century Britain investigates key moments, themes and identities in the past century. Engaging with cutting-edge research and debate, the essays in the volume combine discussion of the major issues currently preoccupying historians of the twentieth century with clear guidance on new directions in the theories and methodologies of modern British social, cultural and economic history. Divided into three, the first section of the book addresses key concepts historians use to think about the century, notably, class, gender and national identity. Organised chronologically, the book then explores topical thematic issues, such as multicultural Britain, religion and citizenship. Representing changes in the field, some chapters represent more recent fields of historical inquiry, such as modernity and sexuality.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;
Early Modern England 1485-1714 by
The new, fully-updated edition of the popular introduction to the Tudor-Stuart period--offers fresh scholarship and improved readability. Early Modern England 1485-1714 is the market-leading introduction to the Tudor-Stuart period of English history. This accessible and engaging volume enables readers to understand the political, religious, cultural, and socio-economic forces that propelled the nation from small feudal state to preeminent world power. The authors, leading scholars and teachers in the field, have designed the text for those with little or no prior knowledge of the subject. The book's easy-to-follow narrative explores the world the English created and inhabited between the 15th and 18th centuries. This new edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect the latest scholarship on the subject, such as Henry VIII's role in the English Reformation and the use of gendered language by Elizabeth I. A new preface addresses the theme of periodization, while revised chapters offer fresh perspectives on proto-industrialization in England, economic developments in early modern London, merchants and adventurers in the Middle East, the popular cultural life of ordinary people, and more. Offering a lively, reader-friendly narrative of the period, this text: Offers a wide-ranging overview of two and half centuries of English history in one volume Highlights how social and cultural changes affected ordinary English people at various stages of the time period Explores how the Irish, Scots, and Welsh affected English history Features maps, charts, genealogies and illustrations throughout the text Includes access to a companion website containing online resources Early Modern England 1485-1714 is an indispensable resource for undergraduate students in early modern England courses, as well as students in related fields such as literature and Renaissance studies.
The Stuart Age by
Occupying the top spot on most undergraduate reading lists for this period, and widely used by teachers and students on A-level courses on early modern British history, The Stuart Age is the definitive history of England¿s century of civil war and revolution. This new edition clarifies and makes sense of recent historiographical trends over the last decade. In a substantial new introduction to the volume, Barry Coward provides an important assessment of the impact of new revisionist approaches on historical writing about the Stuart age.
England under the Tudors by
¿Anyone who writes about the Tudor century puts his head into a number of untamed lions¿ mouths.¿ G.R. Elton, Preface Geoffrey Elton (1921¿1994) was one of the great historians of the Tudor period. England Under the Tudors is his major work and an outstanding history of a crucial and turbulent period in British and European history. Revised several times since its first publication in 1955, England Under the Tudors charts a historical period that witnessed monumental changes in religion, monarchy, and government ¿ and one that continued to shape British history long after. Spanning the commencement of Henry VII's reign to the death of Elizabeth I, Elton¿s magisterial account is populated by many colourful and influential characters, from Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cranmer, and Thomas Cromwell to Henry VIII and Mary Queen of Scots. Elton also examines aspects of the Tudor period that had been previously overlooked, such as empire and commonwealth, agriculture and industry, seapower, and the role of the arts and literature. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by Diarmaid MacCulloch.
The Web of Empire by
How did England go from a position of inferiority to the powerful Spanish empire to achieve global pre-eminence? In this important second book, Alison Games, a colonial American historian, explores the period from 1560 to 1660, when England challenged dominion over the American continents, established new long-distance trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean and the East Indies, and emerged in the 17th century as an empire to reckon with. Games discusses such topics as the men and women who built the colonial enterprise, the political and fiscal factors that made such growth possible, and domestic politics that fueled commercial expansion. Her cast of characters includes soldiers and diplomats, merchants and mariners, ministers and colonists, governors and tourists, revealing the surprising breath of foreign experiences ordinary English people had in this period. This book is also unusual in stretching outside Europe to include Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. A comparative imperial study and expansive world history, this book makes a lasting argument about the formative years of the English empire.
Tudor England by
From Henry VII's capture of the crown at Bosworth in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, Tudor England witnessed far-reaching changes in politics and religion under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth herself. John Guy's compelling new history is the most complete account of thatmomentous period to appear in over thirty years.Based on the most thorough knowledge of the sources and literature relating to the Tudors, his book is the first to take note of fresh debates on the progress of the English Reformation, and on the strengths and weaknesses of Tudor government at national and local level. Authoritative,comprehensive, clearly argued, and crisply written, the story is enriched by lively character studies of monarchs and politicians. The main themes of the period are closely analysed, and topics such as the economy and society, and political culture are placed firmly in their historical context, inindividual chapters.
Dominion: England and its island neighbours 1500-1707 by
Dominion: England and its Island Neighbours c.1500-1707 is a rich narrative history of England's increasing dominance over the cluster of territories that became known as the British Isles. It brings alive a period and a geography remarkable for repeated religious wars and a long colonial struggle as well as for London's emergence as a political, economic, and cultural hub. While Dominion concentrates on English actions and purposes, it pays carefulattention to interactions in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and to the pressures of European competition. It does so by drawing on the vibrant recent scholarship of the separate nations and considerable primary research, and also on the language of the actors, from Henry VIII and Elizabeth, Spenser and Shakespeare, toOliver Cromwell and John Milton.Its purpose is not just to explore English understandings and ideologies, but their consequences, both creative and disruptive. The landmarks of the Tudor and Stuart centuries may be familiar: the creation of Ireland as a subordinate but fractured kingdom, the unification of Wales with England, the unstable union of the crowns of England and Scotland, the bloody conquest and reconquest of Ireland, and the formation of the United Kingdom amid fierce rivalry with France. By interweaving thesestrands as a single coherent story of English reactions and projections, this book opens up a new understanding of this formative period in the history of these islands - and also of its fractious legacy.
Towns in Tudor and Stuart Britain by
"Why should one study urban history? Were towns the precipitating element for change in the human way of life? By examining in turn various aspects of urban history in the period 1500-1700 this book will attempt to examine recent historical ideas about towns in Britain." "This book explores the role that towns played in the transformation of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through overseas exploration and exploitation and the manipulation of the world economy. It argues that towns were the focal point for most of the critical struggles in the period, from religion to politics, and that they were increasingly the places in which educated and wealthy people liked to live their lives. As the percentage of people with experience of the urban lifestyle grew, social attitudes towards kin and neighbours were affected by the perspective of living in close contact with strangers." "Sybil Jack also examines the fierce urban competition for resources and describes how the treatment of individual towns as favoured places enabled them to develop the economic leverage to monopolise certain functions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The English Reformation by
This history tells the story of how the English, over three generations, adapted to the religious changes forced upon them by the Reformation and, in doing so, radically reconstructed their culture.
A Monarchy Transformed by
The sixth of nine volumes in the major Penguin History of Britain series, A Monarchy Transformed narrates the tempestuous political events of the Stuart dynasty. It charts the reigns of six monarchs, and the course of two revolutions as well as religious upheavals that shook the beliefs of seventeenth-century Britons to the core.
Tudor and Stuart Britain by
Providing detailed coverage of the main political and religious issues of the age, this new edition of Tudor and Stuart Britain has expanded sections on Ireland and Scotland, ensuring the text considers Britain as a whole. Historiographically up to date, there is also extra coverage of economic and social topics including trade and industry, the structure of society, the treatment of the poor, and the role of women. A guide to further reading lists the principal works published on the period since 1990, providing students with an excellent resource for extra research. This text is ideal for introductory undergradutate courses in Early Modern British History.
Reformation England 1480-1642 by
Reformation England provides a clear and critical account of recent scholarly approaches, while at the same time retaining a narrative drive. This volume combines reassessment of familiar debates and topics with introductions to newer historiographical concerns: religious life before the Reformation; the early evangelical movement; meanings of 'puritanism' and 'catholicism' in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the nature of religious 'conformity'; religious conflict and the advent of civil war. The book addresses a problem whose ramifications are still with us: why the English became divided over religion, and why, despite the efforts of a succession of governments, those divisions could not be healed.
Early Modern Britain, 1450-1750 by
This introductory textbook provides a wide-ranging survey of the political, social, cultural and economic history of early modern Britain, charting the gradual integration of the four kingdoms, from the Wars of the Roses to the formation of 'Britain', and the aftermath of England's unions with Wales and Scotland. The only textbook at this level to cover Britain and Ireland in depth over three centuries, it offers a fully integrated British perspective, with detailed attention given to social change throughout all chapters. Featuring source textboxes, illustrations, highlighted key terms and accompanying glossary, timelines, student questioning, and annotated further reading suggestions, including key websites and links, this textbook will be an essential resource for undergraduate courses on the history of early modern Britain. A companion website includes additional primary sources and bibliographic resources.
Global Lives by
This is a fascinating and unique account of Britain's rise as a global imperial power told through the lives of over forty individuals from a huge range of backgrounds. Miles Ogborn relates and connects the stories of monarchs and merchants, planters and pirates, slaves and sailors, captives and captains, reactionaries and revolutionaries, artists and abolitionists from all corners of the globe. These dramatic stories give new life to the exploration of the history and geography of changing global relationships, including settlement in North America, the East India Company's trade and empire, transatlantic trade, the slave trade, the rise and fall of piracy, and scientific voyaging in the Pacific. Through these many biographies, including those of Anne Bonny, Captain Cook, Queen Elizabeth I, Pocahontas, and Walter Ralegh, early modern globalisation is presented as something through which different people lived in dramatically contrasting ways, but in which everyone played a part.
Production and Consumption in English Households 1600-1750 by
This economic, social and cultural analysis of the nature and variety of production and consumption activities in households in Kent and Cornwall yields important new insights on the transition to capitalism in England.
Women, Work and Sociability in Early Modern London by
Drawing on legal and literary sources, this work revises and expands understandings of female honesty, worth and credit by exploring how women from the middling and lower ranks of society fashioned positive identities as mothers, housewives, domestic managers, retailers and neighbours between 1550 and 1700.
Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources by
Understanding Early Modern Primary Sources is an introduction to the rich treasury of source material available to students of early modern history. During this period, political development, economic and social change, rising literacy levels, and the success of the printing press, ensured that the State, the Church and the people generated texts and objects on an unprecedented scale. This book introduces students to the sources that survived to become indispensable primary material studied by historians. After a wide-ranging introductory essay, part I of the book, 'Sources', takes the reader through seven key categories of primary material, including governmental, ecclesiastical and legal records, diaries and literary works, print, and visual and material sources. Each chapter addresses how different types of material were produced, whilst also pointing readers towards the most important and accessible physical and digital source collections. Part II, 'Histories', takes a thematic approach. Each chapter in this section explores the sources that are used to address major early modern themes, including political and popular cultures, the economy, science, religion, gender, warfare, and global exploration. This collection of essays by leading historians in their respective fields showcases how practitioners research the early modern period, and is an invaluable resource for any student embarking on their studies of the early modern period.
Leviathan : the rise of Britain as a world power by 
The Emergence of a Nation State by
This famous survey has been updated to incorporate the new perspectives of the last twelve years. The study opens with one Revolution, the Reformation, and closes with another - the Civil War of the mid-17th century and the abolition of the monarchy. Alan Smith explores the dramatic changes during this period when the country was forged into a '`nation state." Its centrepiece however, remains the extraordinary achievements of the Elizabethan and Jacobean age, and these glories are given full treatment in this masterly account.
Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640 by
Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640 integrates social history, politics and literary culture as part of a ground-breaking study that provides revealing insights into early modern English society. Susan D. Amussen and David E. Underdown examine political scandals and familiar characters-including scolds, cuckolds and witches-to show how their behaviour turned the ordered world around them upside down in very specific, gendered ways. Using case studies from theatre, civic ritual and witchcraft, the book demonstrates how ideas of gendered inversion, failed patriarchs, and disorderly women permeate the mental world of early modern England. Amussen and Underdown show both how these ideas were central to understanding society and politics as well as the ways in which both women and men were disciplined formally and informally for inverting the gender order. In doing so, they give a glimpse of how we can connect different dimensions of early modern society. This is a vital study for anyone interested in understanding the connections between social practice, culture, and politics in 16th- and 17th-century England.
A Social History of England, 1500-1750 by
The rise of social history has had a transforming influence on the history of early modern England. It has broadened the historical agenda to include many previously little-studied, or wholly neglected, dimensions of the English past. It has also provided a fuller context for understanding more established themes in the political, religious, economic and intellectual histories of the period. This volume serves two main purposes. Firstly, it summarises, in an accessible way, the principal findings of forty years of research on English society in this period, providing a comprehensive overview of social and cultural change in an era vital to the development of English social identities. Second, the chapters, by leading experts, also stimulate fresh thinking by not only taking stock of current knowledge but also extending it, identifying problems, proposing fresh interpretations and pointing to unexplored possibilities. It will be essential reading for students, teachers and general readers.
Earthly necessities : economic lives in early modern Britain, 1470-1750 by Cultural and Social History - available in module area
Historical Research - available in module area
History - available in module area
History Compass - available in module area
International Review of Social History
Law and Society Review - available in module area