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Recent Posts
- Review: The Countess (2009)
- Voltaire’s English alter-ego unmasked by new letters
- Seeking the Supernatural: The Exorcisms of John Darrell and the Formation of an Orthodox Identity in Early Modern England
- Warning, Familiarity and Ridicule: Tracing the Theatrical Representation of the Witch in Early Modern England
- English Assimilation and Invasion From Outside the Empire: Problems of the Outsider in England in Bram Stoker’s Dracula
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Social History Archive
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Seeking the Supernatural: The Exorcisms of John Darrell and the Formation of an Orthodox Identity in Early Modern England
Posted on February 1, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis examines the questions raised by Darrell‘s exorcisms and the ways in which they were shaped by relations of power. I hope that it will shed new light on the ways in which people formed their religious and ideological identities in this pivotal period in English history. -
English Assimilation and Invasion From Outside the Empire: Problems of the Outsider in England in Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Posted on February 1, 2012 | No CommentsNo matter how relevant the novel may seem to current readers, it would be foolish to ignore the ways in which Dracula excited emotions in its earliest readers. Late Victorian English citizens would have viewed the novel through a number of different lenses that 21st century readers may be unable to appreciate. -
Constructions of Infanticide in Early Modern England: Female Deviance During Demographic Crisis
Posted on January 31, 2012 | No CommentsNewborn child murder may have been rare in early modern England, but there is little doubt that it happened. Evidence of it exists in the judicial records, as it was criminalized by the legal code. -
Chinoiserie: Revisiting England’s Eighteenth-Century Fantasy of the East
Posted on January 31, 2012 | No CommentsChinoiserie, a French word, is also used in the English language for a seventeenth and eighteenth century European style of ornamentation whose inspiration is entirely Oriental. Spanning centuries, continents and cultures, Chinoiserie explores the clash and fusion of values and perceptions between the East and the West. -
Musicians and Intelligence Operations, 1570-1612: Politics, Surveillance, and Patronage in the Late Tudor and Early Stuart Years
Posted on January 31, 2012 | No CommentsReligious and political upheavals in late Tudor England had markedconsequences on artistic patronage. Although this dissertation is not a comprehensive study of music patronage as it shifted with changing networks of power, I will propose that a form of alternative patronage did emerge with the growth industry in intelligence operations. -
The City of York in the time of Henry VIII
Posted on January 31, 2012 | No CommentsDuring this period, the role of the landed aristocracy was changing. With the creation of a professional standing army, in which soldiers were paid a wage, and the use of foreign mercenaries (think of the Swiss Guard), the traditional military function of the nobility receded. -
Victorian Governesses : A Look at Education and Professionalization
Posted on January 27, 2012 | No CommentsHistories and fictions explore the lives of Victorian governesses. The governess appeared lonely, depressed, and unwanted, yet thousands of women entered the profession. Victorian governesses experienced changing social and economic conditions. -
Beliefs and Approaches to Death and Dying in Late Seventeenth-Century England
Posted on January 27, 2012 | No CommentsThis study evaluates beliefs and practices of death and dying among Puritans and Arminians in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, from the English Civil War era through the Glorious Revolution. -
Forging a coalition army: William III, the grand alliance, and the confederate army in the Spanish Netherlands, 1688-1697
Posted on January 27, 2012 | No CommentsThe wars against Louis XIV were fought by coalition armies. In the autumn of 1688, Louis’ forces invaded the Palatinate triggering the largest European conflict of the age, a war that would eventually involve — either directly or indirectly — every state in Europe. -
A Crisis in Regal Identity: The Dichotomy Between Levinia Teerlinc’s (1520-1576) Private and Public Images of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Posted on January 27, 2012 | No CommentsTeerlinc’s career began with an invitation to serve as official court painter to Henry VIII (1491-1547). After his death in 1554, she worked for Edward VI (1547-1553), Mary I (1516-1558), and finally Elizabeth I (1533-1603). -
Courtship and Marriage Rituals in Seventeenth Century England
Posted on January 27, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis will examine the more personal side of courtship and marriage, through the use of seventeenth century diaries and letters. -
Imagining the pain and peril of seventeenth-century childbirth: travail and deliverance in the making of an early modern world
Posted on January 23, 2012 | No CommentsAlice Thornton’s accounts of the pains and perils of childbirth, including this passage on the birth of her fifth child, have attracted the attention of a number of recent historians as particularly detailed and evocative examples of personal testimony to the experience of giving birth in the early modern period. -
English hunger and industrial disorders : a study of social conflict during the first decade of George III’s reign
Posted on January 13, 2012 | No CommentsThis dissertation will argue that while the distress of the industrious poor, which followed sudden fluctuations in food prices and declining employment was the common denominator in the numerous riots of the 1760's, the disorders were merely the surface manifestation of underlying political, economic, social and intellectual ferment which affected all levels of society. -
The Family of Love and the Church of England
Posted on January 13, 2012 | No CommentsOn Oct 3, 1580,a Royal Proclimation was issued entitle, "Ordering Prosecution of the Family of Love". In it the Queen expresses her displeasure at "certain persons which do secretly in corners make privy assemblies of divers simple people unlearned people..." -
Young England : the medieval spirit in an industrial age, 1842-1850
Posted on January 12, 2012 | No CommentsIt cannot be said that Young England left an indelible mark on the legislation or social life of Victorian England. As Disraeli's biographer, E.T. Raymond,,, has remarked, "It left no mark on the statute book. -
British attitudes to the Negro, 1850-1870
Posted on January 12, 2012 | No CommentsThe subjects of this thesis are white not black. Victorian attitudes to race were as much a product of developments in the white world of England as a result of encounters with the black man in the Empire. -
When January 1st Wasn’t the First of the Year
Posted on January 12, 2012 | No CommentsBut strange as it may seem, January 1st did not always signal the beginning of a new calendar year. Until 1752, the two were separate things in England and its colonies. Until that point, people began each calendar year on March 25, which was Annunciation Day—or Lady Day. -
The Debate over the Corporeality of Demons in England, c. 1670-1700
Posted on January 6, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis explores a debate which occurred in England during the late seventeenth century. The debate was over whether demons were corporeal or incorporeal. Believers in witchcraft claimed that witches provided proof of demons and those demons were incorporeal substances that could affect the temporal world. -
The politics of art and religion : Absolutism and Catholic iconography in early Stuart England 1603-1649
Posted on December 21, 2011 | No CommentsThe two Stuart kings, James and Charles, brought important change to England. For inspiration to modernize, James I looked outside of England, a strategy more vigorously pursued by his successor Charles I. -
Scholar discovers 16th-century love poem written by an Englishwoman
Posted on December 16, 2011 | No CommentsThe erotic-love poem seems to have been by a Roman Catholic woman and sent to a Protestant scholar who was the tutor to Edward VI. -
High crimes: the law of treason in late Stuart Britain
Posted on December 14, 2011 | No CommentsThis is the first work on treason to concentrate exclusively on the all important years between the Restoration and the Union, when the number of trials for this most serious of all crimes reached new heights and during which time the procedural law of treason underwent significant changes. -
Thomas Cromwell: aspects of his administrative work
Posted on December 12, 2011 | No CommentsThe conclusion attempts to account for the fact that in his administration Cromwell seems to have been guided by contradictory desires (to organise bureaucratically, and to evade bureaucratic organisation in the interests of personal ascendancy), and to assess his place as the founder of modern government in England. -
Christmas: Its Origin and Associations: Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries
Posted on December 4, 2011 | No CommentsHenceforth, I became a snapper-up of everything relating to Christmastide, utilised every opportunity of searching libraries, bookstalls, and catalogues of books in different parts of the country... -
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth
Posted on November 22, 2011 | No CommentsOn January 16th, 1559, England’s twenty-five-year-old sovereign left Whitehall to be crowned Queen. This article, by A.L. Rowse, was first published in May 1953, exactly fifty years ago, in a special issue of History Today that marked the imminent coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. -
All Singing, All Dancing
Posted on November 22, 2011 | No CommentsSexually explicit jigs were a major part of the attraction of the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration stage, as Lucie Skeaping explains. -
Secretaries, statesmen and spies: the clerks of the Tudor Privy Council, c. 1540-c. 1603
Posted on November 18, 2011 | No CommentsThe office of clerk of the Privy Council has been largely ignored by historians.While some individual clerks who eventually rose to the ranks of the Privy Council have drawn some attention from scholars, most clerks are unknown, or mentioned only tangentially in journal articles or historical monographs. -
The Ghost in Early Modern Protestant Culture: Shifting perceptions of the afterlife, 1450-1700
Posted on October 25, 2011 | No CommentsThe Ghost in Early Modern Protestant Culture:Shifting perceptions of the afterlife, 1450-1700 McKeever, Amanda Jane PhD Thesis, Philosophy, University of Sussex, September 27, (2010) Abstract My thesis seeks to address... -
Utopia Pre-Empted: Kett’s Rebellion, Commoning, and the Hysterical Sublime
Posted on October 24, 2011 | No CommentsKett’s Rebellion, the best known rising, occurred in Norwich, the second city of the nation, and on nearby Mousehold Heath, as thousands of campmen – peasants, tradesmen, and artisans fired by Reformation theology. -
The Origins of Tea Drinking in Britain
Posted on October 16, 2011 | No CommentsSoft drinks other than tea were, as we shall see, only just starting to gain a foothold on the island. Today, with the hindsight of history, we know that no other country in Europe has been so influenced by the arrival of this leaf as Britain was, -
The Hunt for Jack the Ripper
Posted on October 16, 2011 | No CommentsWilliam D. Rubinstein reviews the achievements of the ‘Ripperologists’ and lends weight to the argument surrounding the Ripper Diaries. -
Margaret Cavendish’s Imaginary Friends
Posted on October 15, 2011 | No CommentsMargaret Cavendish’s Imaginary Friends Rachel Warburton – Lakehead University Session: “English Epistolary Friendships” Paper given at the conference: Friendship In Pre-Modern Europe (1300-1700) This paper analysed Margaret Cavendish’s sociable letters. They... -
Plague in Elizabethan and Stuart London: the Dutch response
Posted on October 14, 2011 | No CommentsPlague in Elizabethan and Stuart London: the Dutch response Grell, Ole Peter Medical History, 34, (1990) Abstract Plague was, without doubt, the most devastating disease that could hit an urban... -
Promoting ‘English Civility’ in Tudor Times
Posted on October 14, 2011 | No CommentsPromoting ‘English Civility’ in Tudor Times Ellis, Steven G. (National University of Ireland, Galway) Tolerance and Intolerance in Historical Perspective, (University of Pisa, 2003) Like states everywhere, the 16th-century English monarchy regulated... -
Early Modern Space Travel and the English Man in the Moon
Posted on October 14, 2011 | No CommentsEarly Modern Space Travel and the English Man in the Moon Cressy, David The American Historical Review, Vol. III, No. 4, October (2006) Abstract The moon, for early modern Englishmen... -
Sumptuary Legislation and the Fabric Construction of National Identity
Posted on October 10, 2011 | No CommentsSumptuary Legislation and the Fabric Construction of National Identity Early Modern England: Constructing the Past: Vol. 8: Iss. 1 (2007) SHULMAN, RACHEL Abstract As England transitioned from a medieval mode of... -
Ophelia, the Singing Corpse: Pleasure and the Gaze in Where the Wild Roses Grow
Posted on October 9, 2011 | No CommentsOphelia, the Singing Corpse: Pleasure and the Gaze in Where the Wild Roses Grow Zeleny, Rachael Baitch (University of Delaware, USA) Neo-Victorian Studies 3:2 (2010) Abstract This essay deconstructs a very... -
Inventing the Wicked Women of Tudor England: Alice More, Anne Boleyn, and Anne Stanhope
Posted on October 9, 2011 | No CommentsInventing the Wicked Women of Tudor England: Alice More, Anne Boleyn, and Anne Stanhope Warnicke, Retha M. (Arizona State University) Quidditas: Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association,... -
Political Bodies and Animal Economies: Reconsidering the Relationship between Healthcare and Statecraft in Late Seventeenth-Century England
Posted on October 7, 2011 | No CommentsPolitical Bodies and Animal Economies: Reconsidering theRelationship between Healthcare and Statecraft in Late Seventeenth-Century England Ridge, Steve (Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London) Ex... -
Chemical Control or Therapeutic Intervention?: Drugs and the Treatment of Suicidal Lunatics in Late Nineteenth-Century England
Posted on October 7, 2011 | No CommentsChemical Control or Therapeutic Intervention?: Drugs and the Treatment of Suicidal Lunatics in Late Nineteenth-Century England York, Sarah (University of Birmingham) Ex Historia, Vol .2 (2010) Abstract The foundation of... -
Sex Differentiation in Hair in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain
Posted on October 7, 2011 | No CommentsSex Differentiation in Hair in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain Chen,Pei-Ching (University of Exeter) Ex Historia, Vol. 3 (2011) Abstract This article will explore the role of hair as a marker... -
William Herle and the English Secret Service
Posted on October 6, 2011 | No CommentsWilliam Herle and the English Secret Service Gill, Michael Patrick M.A. Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington (2010) Abstract This thesis examines William Herle‘s life through his surviving letters to William... -
WHAT CAN ELIZABETHAN PAMPHLETS AND BALLADS TELL US ABOUT ELIZABETHAN MILITARY CULTURE?
Posted on October 5, 2011 | No CommentsWHAT CAN ELIZABETHAN PAMPHLETS AND BALLADS TELL US ABOUT ELIZABETHAN MILITARY CULTURE? Seo, Dong-Ha THE BIRMINGHAM JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE , Vol.1:2 (2008) Abstract In the early part of... -
The Importance of Fashion in Early Modern England
Posted on October 5, 2011 | No CommentsThe Importance of Fashion in Early Modern England Kubin, Lindsay Senior Seminar Thesis, Western Oregon University, May (2007) Abstract To twentieth century scholars the importance of cloth or clothing in... -
Aberrant Accounts: William Dugdale’s Handling of Two Tudor Murders in The Antiquities of Warwickshire
Posted on October 5, 2011 | No CommentsAberrant Accounts: William Dugdale’s Handling of Two Tudor Murders in The Antiquities of Warwickshire Broadway, Jane Midland history, Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring (2008) Abstract This article examines two accounts... -
The case of Aaron Kosminski: was he Jack the Ripper?
Posted on October 4, 2011 | No CommentsThe case of Aaron Kosminski: was he Jack the Ripper? S. K. Lekh, A. Langa, P. Begg and B. K. Puri Psychiatric Bulletin (1992), 16:786-788 Abstract The Whitechapel murders of... -
The Madonna and the Whore: The Victorian Wife and the Victorian Prostitute, a Collision of Virtue and Vice
Posted on October 4, 2011 | No CommentsThe Madonna and the Whore: The Victorian Wife and the Victorian Prostitute, a Collision of Virtue and Vice Coressel, Patti Lourdes College Online Narrative History Journal, Volume 9 (2011) Abstract... -
The Victorian Child, c. 1837-1901
Posted on October 4, 2011 | No CommentsThe Victorian Child, c. 1837-1901 Gubar, Marah (University of Pittsburgh) The Representing Childhood Project (2005) Abstract In 1799, children’s author and educator Hannah More reacted against the revolutions that had... -
What Is Neo-Victorian Studies?
Posted on October 4, 2011 | No CommentsLlewellyn, Mark (University of Liverpool) Neo-Victorian Studies, Vol.1:1 (Autumn 2008) Abstract This article sets out to explore some of the possibilities within the establishment of the journal Neo-Victorian Studies in... -
Have Oxford academics found ‘the real Ophelia’?
Posted on June 10, 2011 | No CommentsAn Oxford University academic is leading a project to study coroners’ reports of accidental deaths in Tudor England. The four-year Economic and Social Research Council-funded project has already turned up some... -
Elizabethan Marriage Customs and Shakespeare
Posted on February 7, 2011 | No CommentsElizabethan Marriage Customs and Shakespeare By Young-Won Park Journal of humanities and social science, Vol.2 (1999) Introduction: The Elizabethan Era was a particularly ripe period in terms of political, social,...