Elizabeth I

by Wallace MacCaffrey

Overview

In this major biography, MacCaffrey focuses on Elizabeth's career as a practicing politician, taking into account her formative personal experiences, her temperament, her own view of her role, and the constraints she frequently faced.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780340614556
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	A Hodder Arnold Publication
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Wallace MacCaffrey is a professor emeritus at Harvard University

Editorial Reviews

"Now at last it [Sir John Neale's 1934 biography of Elizabeth I] faces an academic challenge."—The Times Higher Education Supplement

"Surely the most important [biography] since Neale's appeared nearly sixty years ago...gives us a persuasive picture of the queen, sympathetic but wholly without hagiography?"—History

"The strength of Professor MacCaffrey's treatment lies in the clarity with which he presents the portrait of Elizabeth as policy maker, and her strengths and weaknesses in that capacity. As a public figure his skills do justice to her role."—Archive for Reformation History

"Shrewd judgements are numerous, and the narrative incorporates subtle analyses of events, personalities, and the relationships between them."—Journal of Modern History

From the Publisher

Shrewd judgments are numerous, and the narrative incorporates subtle analyses of events, personalities, and the relationships between them.

Journal of Modern History

The strength of Professor MacCaffrey's treatment lies in the clarity with which he presents the portrait of Elizabeth as policy maker, and her strengths and weaknesses in that capacity. As a public figure his skills do justice to her role.

Archive for Reformation History

Surely the most important [biography] since Neale's appeared nearly sixty years ago...gives us a persuasive picture of the queen, sympathetic but wholly without hagiography

History

Now at last it [Sir John Neale's 1934 biography of Elizabeth I] faces an academic challenge.

The Times Higher Education Supplement

This study, the author's 1981 volume, Queen Elizabeth and the Making of Policy, 1572-1588 (-10112-4), and his 1969 work, The Shaping of the Elizabethan Regime: Elizabethan Politics, 1558-1572 (-00767-5), are being released as uniform paperbacks for $18.95 each. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

She claimed to have the heart and stomach of a king, though in the frail body of a weak woman. Elizabeth I of England inspired the love of her people, encouraged arts and learning, longed for peace while waging war--and with her vacillation and dithering could drive her privy counselors mad. MacCaffrey, fellow of the Royal Historical Society and author of two previous works on Elizabeth, focuses on the politician behind the Virgin Queen, her vision shaped by years of court intrigue and fear, and her fallibility as well as statecraft. This well-researched, scholarly work lacks the personal color of Mary Luke's Gloriana ( LJ 10/1/73) and Anne Somerset's Elizabeth I ( LJ 10/1/91), but as a secondary source it sheds new light on a complex, contradictory queen. Recommended for larger history collections.-- Nancy L. Whitfield, Meriden P.L., Ct.

Library Journal