Early Modern History Round-Up
A new feature of this blog will be a bimonthly collection of articles, reviews, and new books from the field of Early Modern history.
Aaron Graham of Jesus College, Oxford, has reviewed a number of books under the title Mercantile Networks in the Early Modern World in The Historical Journal (Vol. 56, Issue 1). Reviewing such a broad subject is no easy task, but the article is highly informative and will prove useful to anyone studying this area of history.
Bernard Capp reviews Ann Hughes' Gender and the English Revolution in the April 2013 edition of the English Historical Review.
Sam Jordison reviews Robert Newman's new novel The Trade Secret, published by Cargo. Cargo has kindly agreed to send me a review copy. The book promises to be a gripping account of the early origins of capitalism. Jordison's review appeared in The Guardian on 7 June 2013.
In The Guardian, Tristram Hunt argues that history is where many of the great battles of public life are now being fought. From disputes over the curriculum to the controversy surrounding Niall Ferguson's remarks on John Maynard Keynes, Hunt explores how interpretations of the past continue to shape debates about the future.
Christine Jackson's article, Memory and the Construction and Experience of Elite Masculinity in the Seventeenth-Century Autobiography of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, appeared in Gender & History (Vol. 25, Issue 1, April 2013).
One of the most significant recent publications is Geoffrey Parker's Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013). At 672 pages, it is a substantial work and will be reviewed on this blog at a later date. Christopher Hill once described Parker as "perhaps the most perceptive modern historian of the subject."
The June editions of both History Today and BBC History Magazine contain reviews of Parker's book by Paul Dykes and Penny Roberts respectively.
In the March 2013 issue of the Journal of Modern History, Tom Webster reviews Andrew Chambers' Godly Reading: Print, Manuscript and Puritanism in England, 1580-1720, part of the Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History series.
Helen Pierce reviews The Public Face of Early Modern England: Artfully Revealed for the Reviews in History website.
The June edition of BBC History Magazine also features David Priestland's appreciation of E. P. Thompson, with particular emphasis on The Making of the English Working Class, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this year.
Stephen B. Hequembourg's article Hobbes's Leviathan: A Tale of Two Bodies appears in The Seventeenth Century (Vol. 28, Issue 1, 2013).
The March/April edition of Marxist Review carries a review of John Gurney's excellent biography of Gerrard Winstanley.
Writing in the April issue of Literary Review, Paul Lay takes a critical look at Leviathan: The Rise of Britain as a World Power by David Scott (Harper Press).
Last, but by no means least, Thomas L. Leng of the University of Sheffield provides a thought-provoking study of William Sykes in "His Neighbours' Landmark": William Sykes and the Campaign for "Free Trade" in Civil War England (Historical Research, Vol. 86, Issue 232, May 2013, pp. 230-252).
This selection demonstrates the continuing vitality of Early Modern scholarship, with historians exploring subjects ranging from gender, religion, and political thought to trade, capitalism, and global crisis. Together, these works offer a valuable guide to some of the most stimulating recent contributions to the field.
