Investigations of a Dog

The blogroll is back again and Google Reader shared items have gone because Google is about to destroy the sharing features in Reader. This is apparently an attempt to force us to switch to Google Plus but in my case it just means that I’ll switch to Liferea, which is a perfectly adequate RSS reader from the Ubuntu repository. I’ll miss the sharing but I’ll also have more time to do constructive things, and I’ll be slightly less dependent on Google services, so it’s not all bad.

Dealing with this has taken up the time I was going to use to write a proper post, so here are some acquisitions instead. Remember there’s still another week to take advantage of the Ashgate sale.

1. Frances E. Dolan, Whores of Babylon Catholicism, gender, and seventeenth-century print culture (Notre Dame, Ind., 2005).
2. Peter Doyle, British Army Cap Badges of the First World War (2010).
3. Dagmar Freist, Governed by Opinion: Politics, Religion and the Dynamics of Communication in Stuart London, 1637-45, illustrated edition. (1997).
4. Lien Luu, Immigrants and the industries of London, 1500-1700 (Aldershot, 2004).
5. Brian Manning, ed., Politics, Religion and the English Civil War (London, 1973).
6. Jason McElligott and David L. (David Lawrence) Smith, eds., Royalists and Royalism During the English Civil Wars (Cambridge, 2007).
7. Mark Philp, ed., Resisting Napoleon: The British Response to the Threat of Invasion, 1797-1815, illustrated edition. (2006).
8. Nehemiah Wallington, The Notebooks of Nehemiah Wallington, 1618-1654: A Selection, David Booy (ed.) (Aldershot, 2007).

From now until 31 October 2011 Ashgate publishing are having a sale. That means that you (unless you’re in North or  South America) can buy lots of Ashgate, Gower and Variorum books through their website for only £22.50 (normal price is usually between two and three times that). Obviously my book isn’t in the sale because I haven’t finished it yet, but these are some titles that might be interesting:

• Jason Peacey, Politicians and Pamphleteers: Propaganda During the English Civil Wars and Interregnum
• Stefania Tutino, Thomas White and the Blackloists: Between Politics and Theology during the English Civil War
• David Booy (ed.), The Notebooks of Nehemiah Wallington
• Lien Bich Luu, Immigrants and the Industries of London, 1500-1700
• Mark Philp, Resisting Napoleon: The British Response to the Threat of Invasion, 1797-1815

Meanwhile there’s a post-it note on my desk which says ‘THE DOER IS NOT JUST A FICTION BUT A HISTORICALLY SPECIFIC FICTION’. Make of that what you will…

1. Richard Cust and Ann Hughes, eds., The English Civil War (London, 1997).
2. Ian Gentles, Oliver Cromwell: God’s Warrior and the English Revolution (Basingstoke, 2011).
3. Clive Holmes, The Eastern Association in the English Civil War (Cambridge, 1974).
4. Clive Holmes, Why was Charles I executed?, (London, 2006).
5. Mary Leys, Catholics in England, 1559-1829: A social history, (London, 1961).
6. J. S. Morrill, The Nature of the English Revolution (London, 1993).
7. Diane Purkiss, Literature, gender and politics during the English Civil War (Cambridge, 2005).

I’m so looking forward to being able to buy and read a book that has absolutely nothing to do with the book I’m writing. Will it ever happen? I’m also trying to write as little as possible about Cromwell because there’s way too much literature to deal with.

Anyway, no more blogging for me until at least September as the book deadline is coming up and I’m getting too busy for anything else.

1. Daniel C. Beaver, Hunting and the Politics of Violence before the English Civil War, 1st ed. (2008).
2. Douglas Brunton and Donald H. Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (Hamden, Conn., 1968).
3. Ben Coates, The Impact of the English Civil War on the Economy of London, 1642-50 (Ashgate, 2004).
4. Derek Hirst, The Representative of the People?: Voters and Voting in England Under the Early Stuarts (Cambridge, 1975).
5. William Hunt, The Puritan Moment: The Coming of Revolution in an English County, Harvard historical studies (Cambridge, Mass, 1983).
6. Mary Frear Keeler, The Long Parliament 1640-1641, a Biographical Study of its members (Philadelphia, 1954).
7. Brian Manning, The English People and the English Revolution, 1640-1649 (London, 1976).
8. Jason Peacey, Politicans and pamphleteers : propaganda during the English civil wars and interregnum (Aldershot, 2004).

I’ve already looked at a couple of these before but owning copies will be more convenient. Don’t want to gloat too much, but having a 35% discount on Ashgate books is nice. Brunton and Pennington has a really condescending quote from R. H. Tawney on the front! Also acquired some documents from the Essex Record Office thanks to their detailed online catalogue and efficient reprographics service, and for much less than a train ticket to Chelmsford (but I guess I won’t get to meet Aulus or Badvoc…).

1. Andrew Ayton and Sir Philip Preston, The Battle of Crécy, 1346, New Ed. (Boydell Press, 2007).
2. Stephen Badsey, Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry 1880-1918 (Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2008).
3. Mildred Campbell, The English Yeoman: Under Elizabeth and the Early Stuarts, New ed. (London: Merlin, 1960).
4. Ian Gadd, John Stow (1525-1605) and the Making of the English Past, illustrated edition. (British Library Publishing Division, 2004).
5. Paul Griffiths and Mark S. R. Jenner, eds., Londinopolis : essays in the social and cultural history of early modern London (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2000).
6. Julia F. Merritt, ed., Imagining early modern London: perceptions and portrayals of the city from Stow to Strype, 1598-1720 (Cambridge: CUP, 2001). 
   

Believe it or not, these are all somehow related to an essay about cavalry, horses and social status that I’m writing for an edited collection. Overambitious? Moi?

Recently I have mostly bought:

1. John Adamson, The Civil Wars (Palgrave Macmillan, May 2008).  
2. Judith M. Bennett, History Matters (University of Pennsylvania Press, September 2007).  
3. Barbara Donagan, War in England 1642-1649 (OUP Oxford, February 2008).  
4. Andrew Hopper, ‘Black Tom’ (Manchester University Press, April 2007).  
5. Patrick Little, Oliver Cromwell (Palgrave Macmillan, November 2008).  
6. Tim Padfield, Copyright for Records Managers and Archivists (Facet Publishing, January 2007).  

I think Donagan’s War in England is probably the most expensive book I’ve ever bought.