Author: Anna Ciambotti

A Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter in North America is a comprehensive analysis of how different European powers interacted with the various climates of North and South America. This book was very interesting because it heavily explored the idea of the Little Ice Age as being the main reason for a lot of the early struggles that European faced in the Americas. By using both physical and human sources from history, the author was able to craft a holistic view of how colonists and Europeans viewed and interacted with the climate of the Americas. The author goes into detail about the successes and failures of certain colonies located around the Americas. The book’s author is Sam White who is an expert in environmental history focusing on how historians can use both natural and human records to reconstruct past climates and look into how societies coped with them. His expertise and focus in this area of study make him very qualified and trusted to write this book. 

This book has a few main arguments. First, it aims to show how early modern Europeans interacted with the climate of the Americas as well as back home in Europe. By looking into the human interactions, ideas, and experiences with the climates of this time we can start to understand the broader ideas of societies during this time. Additionally, this book aims to argue that climate and climate change had a profound impact on the experiences of colonizers, and changed the course of the first European colonies in the Americas. This book is organized thematically with the chronological aspects to it as well. Thematically it is broken down into various geographic regions as well. Some chapters focus on specifically the Spanish, French, and English expeditions. Additionally, the author tries to focus on geographic regions of the Americas as well, taking the readers through Florida, New Mexico, The Carolinas, Virginia, and Maine. This book does not have too much thematic organization in terms of the categorization of climate impacts on colonists. That would have added a different dimension to the book, maybe allowing readers to see trends of climate impacts across different European colonies. 

Chapter 1 focuses on the pre knowledge Europeans may have had about climate and weather before setting out on expeditions. Additionally, the author even spends a few paragraphs explaining the high and low-pressure systems that impact the prevailing winds and temperatures around the earth. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the Spanish exploration of Florida talking about the failures and successes of Cabeza de Vaca and Velasco. These chapters also discuss the French interactions with Florida and the Roanoke colony in Virginia. These chapters detail how almost every colonist who interacted with the southern United States at that time was met with unfamiliar weather due to their lack of knowledge, and climate change. Chapter 4 jumps across the pond to talk about some of the impacts of climate change within Europe and how that might have spurred or hindered explorations to the Americas. Nobody was left untouched by the unusually cold temperatures. Chapters 5 and 6 explore Jamestown and how certain misfortunes of weather and geography led to a very rough couple of years in that colony. Chapter 7 explores the Sagadahoc colony during the very cold winter of 1608. Chapter 8 talks about how colonists in New Mexico greatly miscalculated what the weather and climate would be like, leading to some great misfortunes. Chapter 9 explores Quebec and Chapter 10 explores the rescue of Jamestown in Virginia. 

In terms of weaknesses, the first thing that comes to mind is organization This book felt like it jumped all over the place geographically and thematically. Although it was very helpful to get a geographical analysis, sometimes the author would talk about several geographic areas in one paragraph which would cause some confusion. This book might have helped readers organize their thoughts better if chapters were organized by theme instead of geography. The writing style of the author was oftentimes not clear, and the main argument was not often mentioned. Including a mini-thesis at the beginning and the end of each chapter might have helped readers to draw better connections on how climate and climate change were impacting colonists. In terms of strengths, the Introduction and Conclusion were very comprehensive and clear which helped layout the main ideas and arguments for the readers. Additionally, the use of both physical and historical sources such as tree ring analysis added a scientific dimension to the paper. 

In the conclusion, the author also added commentary on how it is important to continue to reconstruct and study the climate of the past. Not only does this help us study climate change, but it helps us to preserve climate history as our earth is so rapidly changing. This sense of environmental advocacy added a unique dimension to the book, as this is not often discussed in the history world.

Accidents and Violent Deaths in Early Modern London is a well-written book that attempts to place the phenomenon of accidents and violent deaths into a broader context of early modern society. At first glance, this book seems that it would be a “history buff’s” dream. About 200 pages of gruesome stories of the way people died. Not going to lie, that is what drew me to the book at first as well. However, the author pleasantly takes everything a step further to make this book impactful within the historiography of early modern England. The main purpose or goal of the book seems to be to use the records and primary sources collected about accidents and violent deaths, to help readers construct a view of early modern London. The author does address the problem that since accidents and violent deaths are rare by nature, it is contested whether we can use these sources to draw conclusions about society as a whole. The author counters by arguing that by looking at the response of society to enough accidents, one can start to see how society might have reacted to such traumatic events. 

Chapter 1 starts out by giving a brief overview of what life was like in the city of London at this time, and by overviewing some of the main accidents and types of deaths that are to be discussed in the book. Chapter 1 also reviews some important social structures that interacted with each other around the theme of accidents and violent deaths. Chapter 2 goes more in-depth into the social structures and institutions whose responsibilities it was to manage the aftermath of accidents and violent deaths. The author argues that although rare occurrences, the people whose job it was to oversee these processes had a very organized and methodological way of working. Chapter 3 dives into the opposing forces of water and fire. Both resources are essential for human life, but can also end your life in the blink of an eye. Chapter 5 deals with the everyday accidents that are consequences of living in a city. Falling, being struck, horse accidents, cart accidents. All of these events happened quite frequently and were results of how the city of London was structured and built. Chapter 5 talks about more types of death that occurred in cities but were likely rarer. Often times it is debated whether these accidents were truly accidental or done on purpose. Due to the nature of the Bills of Mortality, it is often hard to tell. Chapter 6 analyzes the data in terms of seasonality, exploring what types of accidents happened during specific times of the year. This chapter also looks at death trends from 1654-to 1735, seeing if there are any significant trends that align with economic or political events within the region. Chapter 7 takes a look into the medical responses that happened after an accident had occurred. Depending on the type of injury, who provided care after an accident varied. Doctors were very limited in Early Modern London. In most cases, parishes would help to fund the healing of patients. And in other cases, companies or jobs would help to pay if the injury was obtained at work. Chapter 8 reviews some of the regulations that were put into place in order to prevent certain accidents from occurring again. Although at a higher level, not much was done, some localities did enforce regulations to keep cities a little bit safer. Finally, Chapter 9 deals with the narratives that were often constructed from accidents and violent deaths. By exploring newspapers, pamphlets, ballads, and personal journals, readers are able to see how early modern Londoners made sense of traumatic events that were happening around them. 

As seen from the summary, this book gave a very comprehensive overview of the types of accidents and deaths that happened in early modern London, and how society reacted to make sense of them. I think the broad yet specific nature of this book is a strength. It takes a very niche topic and expands it in every way possible. This could have very easily been a book summarizing the trends from the Bills of Mortality. However, the author weaved in some aspects of cultural history which allowed readers to receive some first-hand accounts of this topic. Chapter 9 especially helped to pull the culture of Early Modern England into what could have otherwise been a very quantitative book. The organization of the book was also a strength. In three parts: an overview, empirical data, and social and cultural responses, there was truly something for everyone. Although, in part 2 of the book I felt that they were just restating the bills of mortality at times, and wished for more commentary on the goals of the book. Not necessarily a weakness but a source shortcoming, but it would have been nice to learn about accidents and violent deaths from other parts of England as well. Although, that might have made the book too long at that point. 

Overall, this was a wonderfully written book that gave a very holistic view of different types of accidents and violent deaths. The goal of the book was to use the sources based on accidents and violent deaths to give readers a peek into early modern society by seeing how people reacted to and dealt with these traumatic events. After reading this book I am not sure if I am left with any new revelations as to how social structures of this time functioned surrounding accidents. However, I do feel that the author did something new by using the Bills of Mortality to look more into the social and cultural structures of early modern London.

Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640: Turning the World Upside Down is a book that aims at exploring the intersections of different ideas concerning gender and power in early modern England. With a focus on the symbolic theme of turning the world upside down, the authors explore the various instances in which through print culture, theater, and pageantry common English people attempted to invert the social order. Additionally, Susan D. Amussen and David D. Underdown spent quite a lot of time analyzing how the society of England viewed people who were considered “unruly women” or “failed patriarchs”. This book takes a very analytical approach to history, drawing from both primary and secondary sources to open the reader’s eyes to the gendered issues and controversies that existed in Early Modern England. Both Amussen and Underdown are (and were) experts in the fields of power, gender, and class in Early Modern England giving them great experiences and knowledge to write the book. The book was started by Underdown until he passed away, and was finished by Amussen. At first, this may seem like it could cause some rifts in writing style and ideas within the book, Amussen managed to seamlessly finish Underdown’s ideas by blending both of their knowledge bases into one.  

With seven chapters including the introduction and conclusion, this book is organized by theme and idea. Each chapter analyzes a different troubling aspect of British society within the years 1560-1640. Beginning with the idea of unruly women, and ending with witches, the concept of an upside-down social order is weaved throughout the chapters to keep readers engaged with the main ideas. Chapter 1: Unruly Women discusses a variety of women who stepped out of the prescribed social order of the time, and the consequences they were often met with. During this time, women were meant to be under the care of their husband or father, staying at home and tending to the house. However, many women during this time stepped out of this boundary and were met with criticism like scathing pamphlets such as Swetam’s Arraignment of women. Other consequences of being “unruly” could have included being publicly shamed, going to court, or being accused of witchcraft. Amussen and Underdown show that women who attempted to flip the social order were often met with suspicion. However, it was not only women who flipped the hierarchy. Chapter 2: Failed Patriarchs focused on men who failed to live and govern like proper men of the time. The authors showcase several men of power who engaged in nefarious activities throughout their lifetime, and how they were viewed by society. James I is focused on heavily in this chapter, and he had a close-knit group of friends and advisors during his reign in which he engaged in activities that proved him to be a weak ruler. These included favoritism, partying, all the way to sodomy, and homoerotic behaviors. In this chapter, it is argued that many of the problems that come with unruly women and caused by the poor governing of patriarchs and failure to keep order. 

Chapters 3 and 4 focus on the inversion of social order on the big stage through theater, and on the local stage through carnival pageantry performances and shaming rituals such as Charivaris. Within these chapters, we see how the outcasts of men and women come together to start to analyze English hierarchies as a whole. Within the theater, Amussen and Underdown use various examples of tragedies and comedies to show what English society thought of the social order. Tragedies were often used to show people what may happen if you step too far out of the prescribed social order often ending in many deaths as a warning. On the other hand, comedies used the inversion of the social order to make people laugh. It is difficult to tell how much audiences actually took away from these performances to use as advice for their daily lives. It is reasonable to assume that some playwrights created these works to provide commentary on the hierarchies they were witnessing throughout their lives. Chapter 4 focuses on street pageants that were often held during times of festivals and carnivals in early Modern England. Oftentimes these pageants contained elements on Charivaris where the townspeople would act out shameful things town politicians or officers had done. These pageants were used as a fun way to comment on the politics of the time, but conflict often arose. One example the authors use is from the town of Wells where a town official got so offended by the festivities that it went all the way to the Star Chamber. The conflict between church and government often was played out in these settings because many puritans disagreed with the festivities that occurred during the month of May. Lastly, Chapter 5 explores witchcraft and how that intersected with gender, politics, and society of early modern England. The authors argue within this chapter how the fears of social hierarchies being threatened lead to the fears of witches and magic. 

Although not explicitly stated at the beginning of the book, in the conclusion the authors state that readers of the history of early modern England need to begin taking a more integrated approach to analyzing politics, society, and culture of this time. When historians engage in this intersectional thinking, new ideas and motivations may reveal themselves. In essence, this book is arguing for a more intersectional approach to early modern English history. Oftentimes, books about this time period will focus on one or two issues, events, or themes. However, this book examines the ideas of gender, culture, and politics through the lenses of political power, gender roles, print culture, theatrics, pageantry, and witchcraft to give readers a better idea of what society was like during this time. Overall, the authors used the visual symbolism of an inverted world to explain to readers the anxieties that often came with the idea of a disordered society. 

The strengths of this book fall in the organization, sourcing, and choice of topics. As stated before this book is organized by theme which allows readers to easily follow along. The authors did not fail to always mention the theme that connected all of the chapters which is the idea of turning society upside down. The writing within each chapter was very well organized as well. The authors always mentioned how their specific examples were connected to the overall theme. In terms of topic, this book was very good at catching the eye of the reader simply because of the themes discussed. Sex, scandals, and theater are often themes that cause readers to pay more attention as seen with the new Netflix series Bridgerton. Without making this book too much of a “pop-history” the authors were able to balance academic language with interesting topics to write an eye-opening cultural and social history. 

In terms of weaknesses, a common problem with intersectional works is that they can be difficult to follow sometimes. At times in this book, the reader may start to wonder, “What is the author arguing again?” It was great that the author did not have a very specific goal or argument they were trying to accomplish because it allowed readers to get a wide-lens view of the topic. However, some readers may struggle with the “so what?” question as they are reading through this book. The author sometimes struggles to reconnect the visual symbolism of an inverted society to the examples they are explaining.

Miranda Kaufmann’s Black Tudors: The Untold Story was a wonderfully written exploration of the lives of people of color during the Tudor reign of England. By using a variety of primary government and church sources, and secondary sources from other leading scholars on the topic, Kaufmann was able to paint a picture of what it was like to be Black living in Early Modern England. With this picture displayed for readers, she urges them to question what they think they know about Black people during history. Miranda Kauffman has an extensive history on the topic of Black people in England throughout time. This book, which won two awards and is now being used to inform a new TV drama on the topic is probably one of her most successful works. She currently works at the University of London where she is a research fellow with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Kauffman has a slightly different career path than most historians because she also considers herself a journalist. She writes for popular news outlets about the topic of Black people in Early Modern England and often speaks at conventions, festivals, and schools on the topic. She seems very interested in making this topic available to people other than academics, which is reflected in this book that reads very easily. Some might argue that her “pop-history” interests may take away from her credibility as a historian writing on this topic, I would argue that she has plenty of experience and research under her belt that gives her credibility for the book. Overall, this book allows the topic and historical methods of uncovering Black people in Early Modern England accessible to people of all backgrounds. 

The layout of this book highlights a different “Black Tudor” per chapter. While her research uncovered almost 300 Black Tudors within England at this time, she only chose to focus her book on 10 different people. However, the stories of the 200 some others are not lost within this book. Within each chapter, she provides great historical context for each person’s life, while also tying in the stories of other Black people who were known to have lived in England at the time. The first chapter starts by talking about the life of John Blanke The Trumpeter. John Blanke was a Trumpeter for Henry VIII who is visible in a giant piece of art depicting him playing music for a jousting tournament of Henry VII. Kauffman goes into great detail about the various other Africans that might have been present in similar ways in the royal courts of this time. Additionally, Kauffman goes on to prove that John Blanke likely had a lot of freedom and independence as a man employed by King Henry VII. Next, chapter two tells the story of a skilled diver from Africa, Jaques Francis. Francis was hired by the royal court to help recover remains from the shipwreck of the Mary Rose. Kauffman poses the question, Why were Africans so good at diving? Did his skill of diving impact how he was viewed in England? How was his evidence taken in Royal Court as a Black man? He was indeed ridiculed in court, not because of his race, but because the evidence he found went against the economic goals of the people testifying against his master. The third chapter is about Diego the Circumnavigator. He was an African enslaved by the Spanish in a village called Nombre de Dios in Panama. He eventually abandoned his master to join the voyage of Sir Francis Drake around the world. 

The stories continue with Edward Swarythe the Porter who became the first man ever to publicly whip a white man. This story helps readers to reassess what they might know about how Black people were treated in Tudor England at the time. Chapter five talks about Reasonable Blackman, a silk weaver living on the outskirts of London. His story proves that like himself and his family, there could have been many other Black people living in England financially independent and making a life for themselves. Chapter six talks about Mary Fillis, a Morrocan who worked for a seamstress and eventually was converted to the protestant church. This shows that people of all backgrounds were accepted and welcomed into the Church of England at the time. Chapter seven talks about Dederi Jaquoah, the prince of a kingdom in west Africa. His story is significant because he spent a good amount of his life in England learning English and creating good relationships for trading success. In Chapter eight John Anthony’s story was significant because he was hired as a sailor during the same time period when the English started bringing slaves to Virginia. It is incredible how the lives of Africans differed from the colonies to mainland England. The last two chapters detail the lives of Anne Cobbie a prostitute and Catellena a modest countrywoman. Both accounts show the ability of women of color to lead independent lives for themselves in Early Modern England. 

Kauffman did an amazing job writing this book, and she blends the historical academic world with the pop-history world. One of the biggest strengths of this book is the organization. She organized the book by the stories of individual people and their lives in Early Modern England. By organizing the book in this way she humanizes history. Oftentimes, academic history writing gets bogged down by facts, themes, sources, and rants. However, she attracts readers to this book by giving them sneak peeks into the lives of 10 different people of color living in Early Modern England. By doing this, she draws the readers in making them more hooked on the actual history that was happening at this time. Additionally, I think she used her sources exceptionally. For example, she mostly uses primary sources from the government, church, diary, letters, and trading documents. The fact that she is able to create such a colorful and vivid picture of these people’s lives from these dry documents is incredible. Although we cannot be sure that the conclusions she draws from these documents are 100% accurate, there is enough backup from both primary and secondary sources that give readers enough evidence to believe what she is saying. 

As far as weaknesses, there were not many I could pick out. The only aspect of this book that may be considered a weakness is the fact that she often gets off track in the middle of the chapters. She will begin a chapter explaining the situation of the person that she is focusing on, and then in a few pages be “zoomed out” and explain the greater historical context of the situation. This can be good, however, I think she took it too far sometimes, and never really tied her chapters back together. This could have made it difficult for more non-academic readers to understand the purpose of this book. Overall, this was a great book that achieved its purpose of proving to the world that not all Black people during this time were enslaved. This book has the potential to reach both academic and popular audiences, which is good because this topic deserves to be talked about and explored further.

In Mary and Philip: The Marriage of Tudor England and Hapsburg Spain, Alexander Samson sets out to achieve a dense amount of goals based on the perceived success and failures of the marriage of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain. This book not only covers the failures of the marriage through discussions of existing historiographical research on the topic, but Samson brings his own ideas of the consequences of this marriage to the playing field. In the introduction, he stated that he hopes to provide a balanced view of the impacts this marriage had on the British Empire and the rest of Europe. Alexander Samson is an intellect with a wide background. He has focused his career on the colonial history of the Americas, Anglo-Spanish intercultural relations, and Early Modern English and Spanish drama. He does not focus specifically on Early Modern England, which may lead to some skepticism on his qualifications to write such a niche topic book. However, his diversity of experience within the field may allow him to bring in ideas and evidence not usually used by historians within this topic. Overall, Samson surveyed the reaching impacts and dynamics of this marriage along many different intersections. Readers should leave this book feeling slightly overwhelmed with information, but having new thoughts about the marriage of Mary and Philip. 

The book starts off with an introduction where the author takes readers through a detailed overview of the various opinions through the historiography of Mary and Philip. He sets up this chapter so that at the end he can state his goal for the book. Throughout the introduction, the author seems to have an ambitious purpose in mind. Overall, the goal of the book is to provide a balanced analysis of the impacts and dynamics of the Mary and Philip marriage. Some of the main themes he brings up are economic and commercial links between England and Spain, the ceremonial and material culture of royal marriages, the skepticism surrounding a female ruler, revolts against Mary’s reign, xenophobia, hispanophobia, and the power dynamics between the king and the queen. By analyzing all of these things he paints a new picture of how the couple was perceived in an economic, political, and cultural sense around Europe. 

Chapter 1 The Prenuptial takes readers through the political and economic situation of England right before Mary was crowned queen. It is argued that one of the main reasons for setting up the Marriage between Mary and Philip was to keep the Channel open for trade and decrease the threat of the French. This goal was always in the back of the mind of the two countries as Edward VI decreased in health. This chapter also focuses on the symbolism within the coronation of Mary Tudor. She was given material symbols of both King and Queen and was triple crowned with Henry VIII’s Imperial crown. The three-tiered crown was supposed to represent the universal catholic jurisdiction of the pope. Chapter 2 goes through the difficulties of outsider opinion the couples faced as they were contracting their matrimony. Some of these issues included xenophobia, anti-Spanish sentiment, gender expectations of a ruler, betrayal, and Mary’s catholicism. Much of this suspicion came from England’s lack of experience with female rulers, while Spain had had much experience with female and foreign rulers. Chapter 3 goes over Wyatt’s revolt and the Act for the Queens Regal Power. In a way, these two events are connected. Many people within England did not think that as a female Mary had the right to rule, which sparked many revolts when she was coronated. Consequentially, the Act was passed stating that Mary possessed all the same powers as ruler as the kings that had followed her. Although there were many doubters throughout the realm, it cannot be assumed that everybody felt this way about her. Chapters 4 and 5 talk more about the symbols seen by the people throughout Mary and Philip’s marriage that alluded to their power dynamics. For example, on their wedding day, they each wore almost identical outfits and Mary was seated on the right side of Philip, the side usually reserved for the King or the Male. Chapter 6 dives deeper in xenophobia and hispanophobia. The author attempts to argue that the xenophobia of the time did not negatively impact Anglo-Spanish relations. Xenophobia and Hispanophobia were largely confined to the London area, and usually only existed out of economic jealousy. Chapter 7 analyzes how the government functioned under Mary and Philip, as well as explores the misogynistic opinions often aimed at Mary. 

This book has some strengths and weaknesses as to how the author went about proving his point. First, the idea of this book is quite unique in the historiography of the topic. The author set out to change how historians, and possibly normal people view the marriage of Mary and Philip. It was very nice how Samson laid out the overall feeling of historians towards Mary and Philip in the beginning of the introduction. He took readers through a summary of what has already been said about the successes and failures of this marriage. Additionally, the end of the introduction where the author very clearly lays out his arguments was helpful for the reader to get an idea of his goals. The author also used a variety of sources to help him write this book, which he pulled into his writing quite often. There was never a statement made by the author that wasn’t lacking an example. Lastly, the author did an amazing job of using intersectionality to examine this marriage. Not only did the book look at gender, but it also looks at the racial, ethnic, economic, and political aspects of this marriage. Even the author’s analysis of the material symbols such as clothes and crowns used in the coronation and wedding helped readers to envision the power dynamics of the couple. 

In terms of weaknesses, this book lacked a streamline organizational system which made it hard for readers to connect his evidence to his main purpose. The first example of this was the introduction where he dove immediately into anlyzing the current historiography of Mary and Philip. It took him far too long into the introduction to state his point. Secondly, the chapters did not seem to be organized in a specific way. Although the titles of the chapter led readers to believe it would talk about a certain theme, the end of the chapter would stray away from that idea. Within the chapters, there was a lack of connections to his main points and purpose. He would sometimes get so caught up in providing details, evidence, and examples that he would forget to remind the readers how these points connect to the main goal. The previous point can be seen as a strength or a weakness depending on your reading skill/style. Lastly, this book was definitely meant for more of an academic audience. Better organization, concise writing, and purposeful statements might have made this book more suitable for the average reader.