Derek Hirst, Richard Strier, ed.. Writing and Political Engagement in Seventeenth- Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. vii + 236 pp. $59.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-521-66175-1. D. R. Woolf. Reading History in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. xvi + 360 pp. $69.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-521-78046-9. Reviewed by Malcolm Smuts Published on H-Albion (November, 2001) The History of the Book, the Study of Texts, within the history of print culture. He is not con‐ and the Pursuit of Interdisciplinary Cultural His‐ cerned with the evolution of historical methodolo‐ tory gy but rather with questions about how history Although very different in approach, these books "were distributed and marketed; who was books are both historically oriented studies of ear‐ collecting them and for what reasons; where and ly modern texts. As such they belong to an in‐ how they were stored, retrieved and shared; and creasingly fashionable genre that straddles the how readers made sense of them" (p. 6). The real terrain where literary analysis overlaps with in‐ historical revolution of this period, he argues, did tellectual history and newer areas of specializa‐ not involve a change in methods of research so tion, such as the histories of the book, the library, much as an expansion of the audience for histori‐ the manuscript, and the activities of reading and cal works from small coteries of scholars in the writing. Reviewing them together provides an op‐ sixteenth-century to a wide cross section of the portunity to reflect on the current state of this in‐ educated public by the early eighteenth. The frst terdisciplinary field. chapter, tracing the rise and decline of the chroni‐ cle, has as its core a statistical analysis of 79 Daniel Woolf sets out to situate historical chronicle texts, which together accounted for a writing in England between 1475 and about 1725 H-Net Reviews further 141 re-editions between 1475 and 1699. whole, convincing study, although in places Woolf Publication of chronicles peaked between 1550 is hampered by the paucity of his evidence, which and 1579 but then fell off markedly by 1600 main‐ simply does not lend itself to the kind of systemat‐ ly, Woolf argues, because of competition from a ic methodology, borrowed from previous studies variety of newer and more specialized types of of print culture, that he is determined to use. His historical writing. "The chronicle did not so much focus on history books, to the exclusion of other decay as dissolve into a variety of genres" (p. 26), texts and artefacts, also occasionally seems to get including humanist histories, antiquarian treatis‐ in the way of analyses that might have benefitted es, newsletters, diaries, autobiographies, history from being pursued through a wider array of evi‐ plays, and ballads. dence. Some of the most interesting sections of Woolf next deals with "the contexts and pur‐ the book, dealing with topics like the pre-history poses of history reading." Although his evidence is of the lending library or the nature of relation‐ too sporadic to permit truly systematic conclu‐ ships between gentry readers and the stationers sions, he does succeed in demonstrating that peo‐ from whom they purchased books, deal with all ple read histories for many different reasons and forms of print culture rather than history in isola‐ in a large variety of ways. Some of his examples tion. I regretted the omission of any extended dis‐ provide useful correctives to studies by scholars cussion of visual media, such as history paintings, like Lisa Jardine, Anthony Grafton, William Sher‐ commemorative medallions, and engravings of fa‐ man, and Kevin Sharpe, which have examined the mous historical personalities, which might have reading habits of extraordinarily diligent readers, supplemented the book's conclusions about the such as Gabriel Harvey and John Dee, who left be‐ broadening range of historical interests of educat‐ hind copious bodies of annotation. The purpose‐ ed English readers toward the end of the period ful methods and strong political interests of these under study. figures contrast with the far more casual attitude Even in surveying the variety of history texts of the Restoration vicar John Ward, who read his‐ produced in the period, Woolf arguably omits im‐ tories for recreation, as well as the motives of portant categories. He has little to say about the Dudley Ryder, an awkwardly shy law student of role of histories as political polemics and he ig‐ the early eighteenth century who studied history nores the genre of published collections of histori‐ to garner a stock of amusing stories to amuse and cal documents, such as Rushworth's massive as‐ impress young women. semblage of materials relating to the Civil War. Further chapters survey information about Omitting these genres tends to bias the analysis the proportion of books devoted to history in ear‐ toward forms of history associated with leisured ly modern libraries (generally below 15% but ris‐ cultivation rather than political engagement. It ing by the early eighteenth century), practices of also allows Woolf to avoid issues concerning rela‐ borrowing and lending, and the processes tionships between print culture, scribal publica‐ through which history books were published and tion, and wider currents of political interest. How marketed. Woolf provides information on the size did the thriving manuscript culture of the early of print runs, the uses of illustrations, and the Stuart period--involving newsletters, manuscript costs and profit margins of publishers, as well as "separates" documenting newsworthy events and marketing strategies, the roles played by provin‐ libels masquerading as histories, such as Anthony cial booksellers, the methods by which gentry col‐ Welden's Court and Character of King James--help lectors procured books, and the advent of serial give rise to the explosion of politically oriented publications. This is a very useful and, on the print during the Civil War? How did printed col‐ lections of historical documents reflect earlier hu‐ 2 H-Net Reviews manist habits of information gathering and analy‐ but of intellectual activities and habits of mind sis revealed by manuscript sources? While read‐ that can tell us how the things that people did in ing Woolf, I also happened to be working through the study and the library were related to the ways the seven volumes of papers assembled by they made sense of other experiences, including Thomas Murray, secretary to Charles Prince of unsettling events like the Bohemian crisis of 1618 Wales in the 1610s (Lambeth Palace Archives MSS. or the outbreak of civil war in 1642. A study like 664-70). These items relating to war and diploma‐ Woolf's can make a valuable contribution to this cy on the European continent between 1614 and enterprise, provided we appreciate its limitations 1619 now read very much like a documentary his‐ as well as its strengths, and seek to integrate its tory of the origins of the Thirty Years War. Of findings within wider contexts. course Murray did not assemble his papers with Writing and Political Engagement is in some this purpose in mind but they raise intriguing ways a more conventional book, part of a large questions about the extent to which certain gen‐ and growing list of interdisciplinary collections of res of printed history of the late-seventeenth and essays by literary scholars and historians. Its spe‐ eighteenth-century may have derived from an cific purpose is to commemorate the work of John earlier culture of humanist diplomats and secre‐ Wallace, especially Destiny his Choice: the Loyal‐ taries, as well as pedagogical methods used to ism of Andrew Marvell (1968) which the introduc‐ train young gentlemen for careers in the Crown's tion describes as "an interdisciplinary work service. ahead of its time" (p. 1). The individual contribu‐ These criticisms are not intended to detract tions do not reflect any common methodology or from the substantial merits of Woolf's book, theme, apart from "a shared concern for the rela‐ which succeeds admirably in illuminating prob‐ tionship between ideas and events" and, more es‐ lems on which its author does choose to concen‐ pecially, "the relationship of virtue and principle trate. Yet precisely because it is such a careful and to public life" during the seventeenth century (p. systematic study, Reading History raises the ques‐ 1). They are, however, of a consistently high quali‐ tion of how far histories of the book--and more es‐ ty. Stanley Fish's chapter on "the struggle for in‐ pecially of particular kinds of books--can by them‐ sincerity in Herbert's prose and poetry" is a tradi‐ selves resolve the broader questions that cultural tional exercise in close reading that manages to historians need to answer. After all that we have shed significant light on a facet of Jacobean reli‐ learned in recent years about the continuing vital‐ gious culture. It amply justifies the editors' claim ity of manuscript culture well into the eighteenth that old-fashioned formalistic analysis can still century, the importance of oral communication provide a valuable tool of historical research. among elite as well as popular groups and the Jackson Cope provides an interesting analysis of roles played by visual media and ritual in early the allegorical autobiography of the courtier Sir modern societies, we need to be wary of overstat‐ Kenelm Digby, which he situates in relationship to ing the importance of fndings based on print me‐ both Hellenistic romance traditions and contem‐ dia alone. What ultimately matters most is the na‐ porary Catholic literature. Barbara Donagan's ex‐ ture of relationships between print and other cul‐ ploration of "casuistry and allegiance in the Eng‐ tural artefacts, and between habits of reading in lish Civil War" also explores the period's religious the narrow sense, as something we do with books, culture, while at the same time addressing the his‐ and the manner in which people responded to toriography of the Civil War.