EARLY MODERN BRITISH HISTORY Reading list

J.P.Sommerville

EARLY MODERN BRITISH HISTORY
Reading list

Johann Sommerville September 2006

jsommerv@facstaff.wisc.edu

GENERAL

I. Printed material

A) Set texts: None.

Amongst good series of textbooks is the Longman series, including A. G. R. Smith, The Emergence of a Nation State; it covers 1529-1660. A recent survey is Robert Bucholz and Newton Key, Early Modern England 1485-1714, Blackwell 2004.
There are many other good introductions. The Oxford History of England is solid but a bit antiquated; it is being replaced by The New Oxford History of England, of which the volumes on 1547-1603 (by Penry Williams), 1689-1717 (by Julian Hoppit), and 1727-83 (by Paul Langford) have appeared.
Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714 (Penguin History of Britain, Vol 6) provides a summary of Stuart political history.
Jonathan Scott looks at seventeenth-century England in a broader context in England's Troubles: Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context.

B) Bibliographies:

There are three large, aging bibliographies that together cover most of the course:

1) Conyers Read, Bibliography of British history: Tudor period
2) G Davies and

MF Keeler, Bibliography of British history: Stuart period
3) S Pargellis and DJ Medley, Bibliography of British history: the eighteenth century

On the period 1603-1714 there is:

4) John Morrill, Seventeenth century Britain 1603-1714 (DA 375 M 67 - Reference Room; 2S)

Update these with:

5) Royal Historical Society Annual Bibliography: Z 2016 A 66 (Reference Rm, 2S).
This is an extremely important and useful guide to what is published each year; it lists almost everything of importance, and is very conveniently divided up by period and topic, with a good index.
You could use the 1998 CD-Rom version, available at Memorial Library Reference CD-ROM Station Rm 262., but now there is also an Online version.

C) Collections of primary material:

English Historical Documents, vols 4-10.
Bulky Oxford UP volumes each with about 1,000 pages or so of primary material
Journals of the House of Commons and House of Lords: Documents 6-13 (2MS).
Crucial for parliamentary history. These too are available online.
Calendars of State Papers: Documents 34 (2MS).
Highly important calendars, summarizing state papers. An online contents list is available
Historical Manuscript Commission Reports: Documents 33 (2MS);
there is also a more complete set on microcard in the Microform Room on the fourth floor. The General Index to the Reports is DA 25 M 252 (Reference Room; 2S). These summarize important manuscripts in private collections.
Some of these have also been made available online at the National archive site.

D) Other reference works:

The Dictionary of National Biography (known as DNB): DA 28 D48 2 (Reference Room; 2S).
This is a comprehensive, multi-volume work. It has recently been updated and is available to UW students by clicking the link above.
Handbook of British chronology, ed. FM Powicke and EB Fryde. Precise, detailed chronological information on monarchs, bishops, dukes, earls, officials, parliaments etc.
(An online supplement exists in The Directory of Royal Genealogical Data - useful when available but with a somewhat unpredictable server).
Handbook of dates for students of English history, ed. CR Cheney. Calendars for every year; saints days; popes etc.
RH Fritze, et al, eds., Reference sources in history: an introductory guide.
Has sections on Britain.
RH Fritze, ed., Historical dictionary of Tudor England
RH Fritze and WB Robison, Historical dictionary of Stuart England
R O'Day, ed., The Longman companion to the Tudor age
John Wroughton, The Longman Companion to the Stuart Age 1603-1714
Barry Coward, ed. A Companion to Stuart Britain Oxford: Blackwell, 2003

II. Online material:

Early English Books Online: access this through the Library webpage, then Electronic Texts and Multimedia Collections, then Early English Books Online.
This is an extremely rich collection of primary sources.
The Institute of Historical Research in London provides a good collection of links.
The Liberty Library contains a large and growing collection of primary sources relating to political and constitutional history (and material on America and elsewhere).
The Internet Modern History Sourcebook supplies many useful primary documents.
The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica is a partially outdated but comprehensive source of material on English history. (It has apparently been electronically scanned into web form and not properly proof-read so there are occasional chunks of nonsense. Nevertheless, it can still be useful).
The Catholic Encyclopedia is also a very useful source on early-modern religion (provided allowance is made for good, old-fashioned confessional bias).
Parts of the Victoria County History - compilation of information on local history - are available online.