Review by Choice Review
Monumental and multidisciplinary, this encyclopedia enlists contributions by more than 250 scholars to serve as a point of departure for research on almost every aspect of Tudor life. Alphabetic entries provide factual information and introduce scholarly debates surrounding the material without subjecting readers to excessive analysis. A bibliography of current sources follows each entry. The contributors generally represent multiple viewpoints and avoid undue bias in topics open to varied interpretation. The index is extensive, and prefaces and appendixes are detailed (e.g., "Primary and Secondary Materials for Tudor Music"). Only one factual error appeared--Catherine Howard's date of execution. A helpful roster of contributors lists the entries each wrote and gives institutional affiliation (but not departmental affiliation and discipline--information valuable in checking credentials). These weaknesses are offset by the work's solid scholarship, deft blend of fact and interpretation, and breadth. It is more comprehensive than its closest rival, Historical Dictionary of Tudor England, 1485-1603, ed. by Ronald H. Fritze (1991). Recommended for all libraries supporting teaching and research about early P. J. Jones; Baylor University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Describing his imagined Cleopatra, William Shakespeare, the greatest genius to emerge in an era of geniuses, wrote that "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety." He might well have been describing his own enduringly fascinating age, one in which, note this encyclopedia's editors, "We find a playwright who is also a spy; a king who is also a composer; a mathematician who also explored the New World, a travel writer who never traveled, and a devout queen whose zeal made her a byword for martyrdom." It has taken the coordinated effort of some 250 scholarly contributors from throughout the English-speaking world to capture the Tudor age's variety and vitality, from the accession of Henry VII to the throne, in 1485, to the death of his formidable granddaughter, Elizabeth I, in 1603. In addition to its numerous in-depth biographical entries, the encyclopedia covers the visual arts, literature, science, education, music, politics and government, religion, social history, economic history, and the complex interplay among these cultural strains in an era of intellectual, scientific, political, and religious ferment. Within their A-Z arrangement, emblematic articles include those on the Spanish Armada, the Book of Common Prayer, the cloth industry, homosexuality, jewelry, literary criticism, marriage and marriage law, the history of science, and technology and production. Article-specific bibliographies are supplemented by topical bibliographic essays in the appendixes. These essays differentiate primary from secondary sources. In addition to bibliographic references and the name of its author, each article concludes with a generous list of see also references. The volume of each of these lists testifies to the interrelatedness of topics and themes throughout the encyclopedia. In depth and reliance on the latest in scholarship, the articles in Tudor England resemble those in Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837 (Garland, 1997) and similar single-volume encyclopedias from Garland covering the social and intellectual history of various periods of British history. In both scope and depth, it surpasses John Wagner's useful Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World (Oryx, 1999). Like these related sources, Tudor England captures its age in an easy-to-retrieve, thoroughly indexed format.Reference Books in brief The following is a list of additional recent and recommended reference sources.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
