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.
