Overview

In this provocative work, Sommerville examines the onset of secularization in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, exploring how and why various aspects of life - art, language, work, play, technology, and power - became divorced from religious values. The work helps modern readers understand what life was like in an age in which religion suffused society and was as basic to thought as the structure of language. Sommerville argues that secularization began earlier in England than many historians believe - even before Henry VIII's seizure of power over the church in the 1530s - and that it advanced in concert with the Protestant Reformation. As more aspects of daily life were divorced from religious values and controls, religious culture was supplanted by religious faith, a reasoned (rather than an unquestioned) belief in the supernatural.

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9780195074277

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Reviews

[Sommerville] sweeps generalizations from works on politics, language, anthropology, architecture, theater, and iconology into a readable and unfailingly suggestive narrative. --Journal of Interdisciplinary History Sommerville's book is a useful summary...of the secularizing efforts of the Tudor and early Stuart governments. It also makes interesting connections between these political initiatives and some of the intellectual and artistic trends of the period. --Journal of Social History Sommerville has worked through the most recent historiography in an astonishing range of areas from politics to literature to journalism to music to technology and work, and his clear, judicious arguments wear this learning gracefully. --Choice This is a provocative and interesting book on a topic of fundamental importance to historians of early modern England. Its arguments are original and it offers a genuinely new approach to the religious history of the period. --Michael MacDonald, University of Michigan A good supplementary reader for an undergraduate or graduate course on the Tudor-Stuart period. By relating developments in religious thought and practice to changes in science, industry, government, philosophy, language, art, and politics, Sommerville underscores the importance of ideology in understanding the historical process. --The Historian

<br> [Sommerville] sweeps generalizations from works on politics, language, anthropology, architecture, theater, and iconology into a readable and unfailingly suggestive narrative. --Journal of Interdisciplinary History<br> Sommerville's book is a useful summary...of the secularizing efforts of the Tudor and early Stuart governments. It also makes interesting connections between these political initiatives and some of the intellectual and artistic trends of the period. --Journal of Social History<br> Sommerville has worked through the most recent historiography in an astonishing range of areas from politics to literature to journalism to music to technology and work, and his clear, judicious arguments wear this learning gracefully. --Choice<br> This is a provocative and interesting book on a topic of fundamental importance to historians of early modern England. Its arguments are original and it offers a genuinely new approach to the religious history of the period. --Michael MacDonald,

[Sommerville] sweeps generalizations from works on politics, language, anthropology, architecture, theater, and iconology into a readable and unfailingly suggestive narrative. --Journal of Interdisciplinary History<br> Sommerville's book is a useful summary...of the secularizing efforts of the Tudor and early Stuart governments. It also makes interesting connections between these political initiatives and some of the intellectual and artistic trends of the period. --Journal of Social History<br> Sommerville has worked through the most recent historiography in an astonishing range of areas from politics to literature to journalism to music to technology and work, and his clear, judicious arguments wear this learning gracefully. --Choice<br> This is a provocative and interesting book on a topic of fundamental importance to historians of early modern England. Its arguments are original and it offers a genuinely new approach to the religious history of the period. --Michael MacDonald, University of Michigan<br> A good supplementary reader for an undergraduate or graduate course on the Tudor-Stuart period. By relating developments in religious thought and practice to changes in science, industry, government, philosophy, language, art, and politics, Sommerville underscores the importance of ideology in understanding the historical process. --The Historian<br>

<br> [Sommerville] sweeps generalizations from works on politics, language, anthropology, architecture, theater, and iconology into a readable and unfailingly suggestive narrative. --Journal of Interdisciplinary History<p><br> Sommerville's book is a useful summary...of the secularizing efforts of the Tudor and early Stuart governments. It also makes interesting connections between these political initiatives and some of the intellectual and artistic trends of the period. --Journal of Social History<p><br> Sommerville has worked through the most recent historiography in an astonishing range of areas from politics to literature to journalism to music to technology and work, and his clear, judicious arguments wear this learning gracefully. --Choice<p><br> This is a provocative and interesting book on a topic of fundamental importance to historians of early modern England. Its arguments are original and it offers a genuinely new approach to the religious history of the period. --Michael MacDonald, University of Michigan<p><br> A good supplementary reader for an undergraduate or graduate course on the Tudor-Stuart period. By relating developments in religious thought and practice to changes in science, industry, government, philosophy, language, art, and politics, Sommerville underscores the importance of ideology in understanding the historical process. --The Historian<p><br>

"""[Sommerville] sweeps generalizations from works on politics, language, anthropology, architecture, theater, and iconology into a readable and unfailingly suggestive narrative.""--Journal of Interdisciplinary History ""Sommerville's book is a useful summary...of the secularizing efforts of the Tudor and early Stuart governments. It also makes interesting connections between these political initiatives and some of the intellectual and artistic trends of the period.""--Journal of Social History ""Sommerville has worked through the most recent historiography in an astonishing range of areas from politics to literature to journalism to music to technology and work, and his clear, judicious arguments wear this learning gracefully.""--CHOICE ""This is a provocative and interesting book on a topic of fundamental importance to historians of early modern England. Its arguments are original and it offers a genuinely new approach to the religious history of the period.""--Michael MacDonald, University of Michigan ""A good supplementary reader for an undergraduate or graduate course on the Tudor-Stuart period. By relating developments in religious thought and practice to changes in science, industry, government, philosophy, language, art, and politics, Sommerville underscores the importance of ideology in understanding the historical process.""--The Historian ""By exploring and explaining social and cultural trends in early modern England, John Sommerville helps readers understand why various aspects of life--art, language, work, play, technology and power--became divorced from religious values.""--New Horizon ""It is full of individual insights, and it is written with clarity and purpose.""--Times Higher Education Supplement ""Sommerville's thesis is ably argued and supported by an impressive array of illustrative source-material.""--The Times Literary Supplement ""A worthwhile contribution to the discussion of early modern secularization and an enlightening account of the transformation of religion in early modern England.""--American Historical Review ""Somerville has produced a lively and original synthesis of great deal of complicated history""--Sixteenth Century Journal ""[B]old and enlightening....Sommerville's account can confidently be recommended to all students of early modern England, at whatever level. They will find in it a mass of material nowhere else so finely drawn together, and an argument nowhere else so challengingly synthesised.""--History Today ""Thoughtful discourse.""--Religious Studies Review"

Author Information

Author of The Rise and Fall of Childhood (1982)

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