The Oxford Handbook of the Age of Shakespeare

R. Malcolm Smuts, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has had a lifelong interest in interdisciplinary scholarship on early modern Britain and Europe. His publications include Court Culture and the Origins of a Royalist Tradition in England (1987); Culture and Power in England 1585-1685 (1998) and several edited collections and articles on aspects of political and cultural history.

• 1: R. Malcolm Smuts: Introduction: Reflections on Interdisciplinary FrontiersPart I: Politics2: Norman Jones: William Cecil Lord Burghley and the Management of Elizabeth's England3: Paul E. J. Hammer: The Earl of Essex4: Pauline Croft: Robert Cecil and the Transition from Elizabeth to James I5: R. Malcolm Smuts: James I and the Consolidation of British Monarchy?6: D. J. B. Trim: War, Soldiers and High Politics under Elizabeth I7: Rory Rapple: Shakespeare, the Irish, and Military Culture8: Glyn Parry: Catholicism and Tyranny in Shakespeare's Warwickshire9: Dan Beaver: Ancient Liberties, Royal Honour, and the Politics of Commonweal in English Forests, 1558-1625Part II: Intellectual Culture and Political Thought and Imagination10: Timothy Wilks: Poets, Patronage and the Prince's Court11: Peter Lake: The Theatre and the 'Post-Reformation Public Sphere'12: Peter Mack: Rhetorical Training and the Elizabethan Grammar School13: Daniel Woolf and Jane Wong Yeang Chui: English Vernacular Historical Writing and Holinshed's Chronicles14: Nicholas Popper: European Historiography in English Political Culture15: Paulina Kewes: Roman History, Essex, and Late Elizabethan Political Culture16: Debora Shuger: Other Republicanisms17: Alexandra Gajda: The Gordian Knot of Policy: Statecraft and the Prudent Prince18: Curtis Perry: Seneca and English Political Culture19: Arthur Williamson: David Hume, Richard Verstegan, and the Battle for Britain20: Brendan Kane and R. Malcolm Smuts: The Politics of Race in England, Scotland, and IrelandPart III: Aspects of Religious Culture21: Katy Gibbons: English Catholics and the Continent22: Naomi Tadmor: The Bible in English Culture: The Age of Shakespeare23: Ethan H. Shagan: Religious Nonconformity and the Quality of Mercy: The Merchant of Venice in Reformation Context24: Tom Webster: Protestantism and the DevilPart IV: Social Beliefs and Practices25: Linda Pollock: The Affective Life in Shakespearean England26: Richard Cust: Chivalry and the English Gentleman27: Alan Bryson: Elizabethan Verse Libel28: James Daybell: Gender, Writing Technologies, and Early Modern Epistolary Communications29: Brian Weiser: The Shamings of Falstaff30: Susan D. Amussen: Cuckold's Haven: Gender Inversion in Popular Culture31: K. J. Kesselring: 'Murder's Crimson Badge': Homicide in the Age of Shakespeare32: Alastair Bellany: Thinking with Poison33: Paul Griffiths: Criminal London: Fear and Danger in Shakespeare's City34: Vanessa Harding: Families and Households in Early Modern London, c.1550-164035: Christopher Highley: Theatre, Church, and Neighbourhood in Early Modern Blackfriars36: Roze Hentschell: The Cultural Geography of St Paul's PrecinctPart V: Architecture, Visual Culture, and Music37: Robert Tittler: Art and Architecture in Provincial England38: Luke Morgan: Garden Design and Experience in Shakespeare's England39: Elizabeth Goldring: Art Collecting and Patronage in Shakespeare's England40: Helen Pierce: Graphic Satire and the Printed Image in Shakespeare's London41: Ross w. Duffin: Music and the Stage in the Time of ShakespeareBibliography

It is impossible to do justice to such a large and varied volume, with so many excellent essays, in a short review. ... while the remit may have been to provide an advanced resource for literature scholars, the volume contains much that will be of interest to historians, theologians, and visual studies scholars.