The Problem of the Poor in Tudor and Early Stuart England

What can the `new'' historiography of political thought, political anthropology and sociology, and literary historicism contribute to our understanding of the Tudor commonwealth? This volume of innovative essays clears fresh paths into the languages, debates and underlying structures of Tudor political thought and policy. Emphasizing the intellectual and the cultural, and introducing interdisciplinary methods and perspectives, the essays address a range of problems in Tudor politics and statecraft which have traditionally received little attention.

Going to the Wars - The Experience of the British Civil Wars 1638-1651

In the 1640s, thousands of young men in the British Isles set off to fight in the civil wars, full of enthusiasm and commitment to the cause. They were soon to be disillusioned. Accustomed to a relatively peaceful and secure way of life, the realities of battle - the mental strain, physical exhaustion, loneliness and violence - were devestating. In "Going to the Wars", Charles Carlton studies the British civil wars from the perspective of those who fought them, to argue that the event described by G.M. Trevelyan as the most important happening in our history, was also the most destructive.

Possession, Puritanism and Print

This new monograph tells a compelling story of injustice and passionate resistance to religious persecution in the last years of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Through an analysis of a sensational series of demonic possessions and exorcisms, it highlights the existence of controversies in print in the late Elizabethan period of the kind that would one day lead to civil war. This book is the first full-length, analytical study of the pamphlet controversy surrounding John Darrell, a rebellious 'puritan', and his group of exorcists.

Fictions of Disease in Early Modern England - Bodies, Plagues and Politics

How did early modern people imagine their bodies? What impact did the new disease syphilis and recurrent outbreaks of plague have on these mental landscapes? Why was the glutted belly such a potent symbol of pathology? Ranging from the Reformation through the English Civil War, this is a unique study of a cultural imaginary of "disease" and its political consequences. Healy's approach illuminates the period's disease-impregnated literature, including works by Shakespeare, Milton, Dekker, Heywood and others.

Women, Murder and Equity in Early Modern England

This book presents the first comprehensive study of over 120 printed news reports of murders and infanticides committed by early modern women. It offers an interdisciplinary analysis of female homicide in post-Reformation news formats ranging from ballads to newspapers. Individual cases are illuminated in relation to changing legal, religious, and political contexts, as well as the dynamic growth of commercial crime-news and readership.