Authority and Disorder in Tudor Times, 1485-1603 by Paul Thomas: a short review

This reads for all the world like a well-polished set of class notes for a college course with the book’s title. One would assume the course to be intended for sophomores or juniors.

The publisher clearly thinks of this as an introductory survey text, but I’d qualify that slightly: The text is a high-level survey and assumes the reader/student knows the general contours of Tudor-era history and the names and roles of the key players. I imagine this would be pretty easy for a British Isles student, but we Yanks might need to begin with a more basic overview. I have a fairly good background, but was occasionally flummoxed by unfamiliar details.

The author does a good job of sketching the context of all the (assumed-known) activity, and goes out of his way to point out areas of historiographical controversy. There are a few footnotes (chapter endnotes, actually), and a short bibliography. All in all, nicely done.


This short review was originally published on LibraryThing.

This entry was posted in Bookworm Alley, History Scrapbook. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.