The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England
My junior high school library had a series of books called Everyday Life in [fill in the historical period]. They had line drawings of period clothing, architectural drawings of buildings (common houses as well as castles), and details about food, games, school, etc. I suspect they were written in the 1920s or 1930s; they have that look in my memory. And I loved them. I read them in series--and then started at the beginning and read them again.* And again. I'd have probably read them through a fourth time if the librarian hadn't introduced me to The Hobbit.** I've retained a fondness for books about every day in times past ever since.
In The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England , Ian Mortimer gives readers a closer view of a historical period with which many feel they have some familiarity. Using the format he developed for his popular Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England, Mortimer tells readers what they could expect to find if they visited Elizabethan England: what they would eat, where they would live, how they would travel. Like modern travel guides, he discusses language, currency, units of measurement, and polite behavior.
If the physical details of everyday life were all that Mortimer considered, The Time Traveler's Guide would be no more than another "daily life in" account of Elizabethan England. The really extraordinary aspect of the book is the way he uses those details to illuminate ideas central to the Elizabethan world view, from the intersection of science, religion and magic to a new sense of history to ideas about the land itself.
Mortimer’s interpretation of Elizabethan England is richer and darker than the familiar “golden age” of poetry, drama, seafaring and expansion. Comparing Elizabeth's England not only with the present but also with its medieval roots, he presents the period as one of uncertainty, contradiction, and change. Elizabeth’s Anglican compromise was under attack from both Catholics and more radical Protestants. A growing population and poor harvests overburdened medieval structures for dealing with the poor. Violence is pervasive, from official acts of torture to alehouse knifings.
The past is a different country; Ian Mortimer is a reliable guide.
* Why yes, I was a little history nerd. Why do you ask?
**And a whole new world of nerditude.
The heart of this review appeared previously in Shelf Awareness for Readers.
Happy Fourth of July!
4th of July picnic in Rogers, Arkansas, ca 1904
Take a moment in your celebrations to remember what we're celebrating:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Picnics and fireworks are nice. Civil rights are better.
Image courtesy of the Missouri State Archives
History on Display: Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity
Édouard Manet. La Parisienne.
Last week, my writing pal Amy Sue Nathan and I headed off to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the hot new exhibit, Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity. *
It wasn't quite what I expected.
I was looking for what the museum describes as "a la mode as the harbinger of la modernité". I wanted to know more about birth of the modern fashion industry, the impact of sewing machines, the development of aniline dyes, and the rise of that astonishing new institution, the department store.** What I got was clothes. Beautiful clothes, brilliantly displayed, but only lightly connected to what I think of as modernity.
Don't get me wrong. It's a marvelous exhibit. It is fascinating to see real-life dresses displayed next to their painted doppelgangers. The curators do an excellent job of describing the social context of the clothes and the women who wear them in the paintings. I learned new things about paintings I love and discovered painters that I didn't know. (I'm talking about you, James Tissot.)
The exhibit is open through September 22. Chicago is the last stop on its tour. If you're interested in the Impressionists or nineteenth century fashion, it's worth the trip. To quote a fellow visitor: "It's the best stuff!"
*It was members' preview day and it was packed. I shudder to think what it will be like on a Saturday afternoon--or free day. Consider yourself warned.
**All of which are mentioned in passing in the exhibit. I just felt a bit like Oliver Twist: please, sir, I want some more.