The Tudors (A Brief Insight) [Hardcover]

John Guy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2010 | Series: A Brief Insight

Thanks to Showtime’s hit series The Tudors, (the fourth season is set to air in Spring 2010), interest in the perennially popular Royal family is at an all-time high, and this enlightening work will appeal to the many viewers eager to learn more about them.  John Guy provides the most authoritative overview of this age in British history, offering a compelling account of the political, religious, and economic changes that occurred under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.  In addition, Guy comprehensively reassesses the reigns of Henry VII, Edward VI, and Philip and Mary.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Guy is a leading British historian and biographer who has held posts at such prestigious universities as the University of St. Andrews, UC Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins. He has written extensively on Tudor England, and his Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart was awarded the 2004 Whitbread Biography Award.  He is also author of A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg. 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (May 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402775393
• ISBN-13: 978-1402775390
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #580,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All that glisters, March 23, 2008

By 

Peter Reeve (Thousand Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tudors: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

I am working my way through the 8 entries in the Very Short Introduction series that were originally part of The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, and I have not been disappointed yet. This very worthy entry in the series, covering the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, has been 'substantially revised and updated', as of 2000.

Professor Guy introduces the chief protagonists and covers the main events of the period, as you would expect, but also challenges some widely-held views, some cherished myths.

History has been especially charitable to Elizabeth I and harshly critical of Mary, and a little reassessment never goes amiss. The Elizabethan age is routinely referred to as a Golden Age. Guy points out that, for working people, an age of rapid population growth and falling real wages may not have seemed quite so golden. He also suggests that Elizabeth's failure to curb government corruption and to maintain tax revenues contributed to the conditions that would ultimately lead to the Civil War of the following century. Mary, on the other hand, being in many ways a victim of ill luck, may not have been as villainous as popular myth often suggests.

Needless to say, a very short introduction can only whet your appetite, not satisfy it. This is both a good place to start and a useful source of fresh insights for readers that already have some knowledge of the period.

Next stop, the Stuarts.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you're not a Brit, beware, June 20, 2010

By 

Fritzy (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tudors: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

I love this series of books, and have several of them. The Showtime series, The Tudors, inspired me to buy this one. But this book assumes that you know a lot about British history and personages, way more than most Americans would ordinarily know. The section, and it's a small one, about all the wives even begins by saying something like "there's nothing much more to say about the wives that you don't already know". Well, no. I don't know. And I wanted to find out. My bad. The Showtime series was lurid and scandalous, and this book finds that line of inquiry a bit too common for a "very short introduction" to 16th century England. I'm now looking for a "very short history of the Showtime series The Tudors".