The reign of Elizabeth I was one of the most important periods of expansion and growth in British history, the so-called 'Golden Age'. This celebrated... and influential study of Elizabeth reconsiders how she achieved this and the ways in which she exercised her power.

Elizabeth I was Queen of England for almost forty-five years. The daughter of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn, as an infant she was briefly accepted as her... father’s heir. After her mother was executed at her father’s command she was declared illegitimate and led a sometimes scandalous existence until her accession to the throne at the age of twenty-five. Elizabeth oversaw a vibrant age of exploration and literature and established herself, the "Virgin Queen", a national icon that lives on in the popular imagination. But Elizabeth was England’s second female monarch, and was greatly influenced by the experiences and mistakes of the reign of her half-sister, Mary I, before her. During her reign, Elizabeth had to perform a complicated balancing act in religious matters. As religious wars raged in Europe, Elizabeth herself a moderate Protestant, had to manage an inherited Catholic realm and the demands of zealous Protestants. The importance of such familiar features of Elizabeth’s reign as the presence in England of Mary Queen of Scots and her enduring efforts to take the throne, the Spanish armada, and the origins of English colonial expansion beyond the British archipelago all receive fresh attention in this engaging book. This new biography sheds light on Elizabeth’s early life, influences and on her personal religious beliefs as well as examining her reign, politics and reassesses Elizabeth’s reluctance to marry, a matter for which she has been much praised, but which is here judged one of the second queen regnant’s more problematic decisions. Judith M. Richards takes an objective and rounded view of Elizabeth’s whole life and provides the perfect introduction for students and general readers alike.

The latest New York Times bestseller from Margaret George-a captivating novel about history's most enthralling queen.One of today's premier historical... novelists, Margaret George dazzles here as she tackles her most complicated subject yet: the legendary Elizabeth Tudor, England's greatest monarch. This magnificent, stay-up-all-night page-turner is George's finest-a spectacular portrait of the alluring yet elusive woman who ruled over the golden age of British history and culture. But what was she really like? In this novel, her flame-haired, look-alike cousin, Lettice Knollys, thinks she knows all too well. And as Elizabeth and Lettice, two women of fierce intellect and desire, vie for power and influence, everyone in the court's orbit is drawn into the ensuing drama.

One of the most compelling figures in colonial America, Elizabeth Murray (1726-1785) was a Scottish immigrant who settled in Boston in her early... twenties and took up shopkeeping. For many years, she practiced her trade successfully while marrying three times, once to a much older man who left her an extremely rich widow. This biography chronicles the life of this extraordinary "ordinary" woman who tried to make a place for herself and other women in the world by asserting her own independence inside and outside of the home. As an importer and retailer of British goods, Murray conducted business with merchants and manufacturers in England and buyers in the American colonies, even traveling to London to select her own stock. Deeply satisfied by her work and the economic freedom it brought her, she acted as mentor to other women, helping them to establish shops of their own. She also protected her autonomy by demanding prenuptial agreements from her second and third husbands that gave her a measure of control over her property that was rare for a married woman of her day. The spirit of independence that Murray so valued in herself and nurtured in other women was severely tested by the upheavals of the American Revolution. With strong loyalties to both Britain and America, she was torn by the conflict, especially when close relatives chose opposing sides and her third husband abandoned her, leaving her to defend the family estate alone. Her wartime experiences-wild midnight rides, accusations of being a spy, quartering both royal and rebel troops, and brief imprisonment-vividly capture the turmoil of the Revolution and highlight the range of her political commitments.

This picture of the London of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) is the result of Liza Picard's curiosity about the practical details of daily life that almost... every history book ignores. As seen in her two previous, highly acclaimed books-Restoration London and Dr. Johnson's London-she has immersed herself in contemporary sources of every kind. She begins with the River Thames, the lifeblood of Elizabethan London. The city, on the north bank of the river, was still largely confined within old Roman walls. Upriver at Westminster were the royal palaces, and between them and the crowded city the mansions of the great and the good commanded the river frontage. She shows us the interior décor of the rich and the not-so-rich, and what they were likely to be growing in their gardens. Then the Londoners of the time take the stage, in all their amazing finery. Plague, small-pox, and other diseases afflicted them. But food and drink, sex and marriage and family life provided comfort, a good education was always useful, and cares could be forgotten in a playhouse or the bear-baiting rings, or watching a good cockfight. Liza Picard's wonderfully skillful and vivid evocation of the London of four hundred years ago enables us to share the delights, as well as the horrors, of the everyday lives of sixteenth century Britain.

“Basing her story on her own family narratives and a deep understanding of Italian Americans, [Fabiano] paints a vivid portrait not just of... immigrants’ lives in the first ten years of the last century, but of the vicious criminals who preyed on them.”—Mike Dash, author of The First FamilyIn Elizabeth Street, Laurie Fabiano tells a remarkable, and previously unheard, story of the Italian immigrant experience at the start of the twentieth century. With stories culled from her own family history, Fabiano paints an entrancing portrait of Giovanna Costa, who, reeling from personal tragedies, tries to make a new life in a new world. Shot through with the smells and sights of Scilla, Italy, and New York’s burgeoning Little Italy, this intoxicating story follows Giovanna as she finds companionship, celebrates the birth of a baby girl, takes pride in a growing business, and feels a sense of belonging during a family outing to Coney Island. However, these modest successes are rewarded with the attention of the notorious Black Hand, a gang of brutal extortionists led by Lupo the Wolf. As the stakes grow higher, Giovanna desperately struggles to remain outside the fray, so she may fight for—and finally save—what is important above all else: family.

The human and financial cost of war between 1544 and 1604 strained English government and society to their limits. Paul E. J. Hammer offers a new... narrative of these wars which weaves together developments on land and sea. Combining original work and a synthesis of existing research, Hammer explores how the government of Elizabeth I overhauled English strategy and weapons to create forces capable of confronting the might of Habsburg Spain.

Elizabeth Jenkins illuminates in great detail the personal and private life of Elizabeth 1. Was she bald? What precisely was her sex-life? What were... her emotional attachments? No other biography provides such a personal study of the Queen and her court - their daily lives, concerns, topics of conversation, meals, living conditions, travels, successes and failures - but it also places them firmly within the historical context of 16th Century Britain. An authoritative history of the period enlightened by a through understanding of Elizabethan society and an intimate portrait of the Queen.

An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man's world, passionately sexual—though, as she maintained, a virgin—Elizabeth... I is famed as England's most successful ruler. David Starkey's brilliant new biography concentrates on Elizabeth's formative years—from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558—and shows how the experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs. From princess and heir-apparent to bastardized and disinherited royal, accused traitor to head of the princely household, Elizabeth experienced every vicissitude of fortune and extreme of condition—and rose above it all to reign during a watershed moment in history. A uniquely absorbing tale of one young woman's turbulent, courageous, and seemingly impossible journey toward the throne, Elizabeth is the exhilarating story of the making of a queen.

This handbook is the first volume to provide a comprehensive look at personality development. It features a state-of-the-art examination of the field,... an area that is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Five major types of advances, all of which are represented in this volume, are the result of the recent burst in research activity in this area: 1) new theoretical perspectives, 2) higher-quality empirical studies, 3) more sophisticated research designs and analyses, 4) attention to development across the lifespan, and 5) the growing prominence of interdisciplinary approaches to personality development. The Handbook of Personality Development is comprehensive across the lifespan, in its range of personality constructs, and in its coverage of theoretical and methodological frameworks. It is the first volume to address the most important personality development theoretical frameworks in one location—the evolutionary, physiological, behavioral genetic, and socio-cultural perspectives. The book also reviews new statistical techniques that allow for the estimation of individual differences in stability and the analysis of change. The latter part of the book focuses on personality development over the lifespan, from infancy to older adulthood. The authors address personality variables such as emotion regulation, temperament, and self-concept across the lifespan. The book concludes with a compelling capstone chapter by Dan McAdams on how personality develops. The Handbook of Personality Development provides an historical account of, and summary of, the most significant and important findings in the area, along with suggestions for future research. Intended for researchers and advanced students in personality, developmental, social, clinical, and educational psychology, as well as related fields such as family studies, sociology, education, nursing, behavioral genetics, neuropsychology, and psychophysiology, the handbook also serves as a valuable resource in advanced courses that address personality development.

En la turbulenta Barcelona de los años 20, un joven escritor obsesionado con un amor imposible recibe la oferta de un misterioso editor para escribir... un libro como no ha existido nunca, a cambio de una fortuna y, tal vez, mucho más.Con un estilo deslumbrante e impecable el autor de La Sombra del Viento, nos transporta de nuevo a la Barcelona del Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados para ofrecernos una gran aventura de intriga, romance y tragedia, a través de un laberinto de traición y secretos donde el embrujo de los libros, la pasión y la amistad se conjugan en un relato magistral.