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A pseudo-review
Sep. 3rd, 2005 03:51 pmWhat I'm reading: Stephen Budiansky, Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage.
The author has written a number of other popular culture-type books - "The Complete Story of Codebreaking in WWII", "The Character of Cats" - and obviously he's happy with his niche. The book is for popular reading, not for scholars (no footnotes, although there is a timeline and bibliography). This is not to denigrate the work; I'm enjoying it immensely. I took a 17th century History of Britain class in my undergrad days, but that was (mumble) years ago...
I always get annoyed at the English tradition of changing people's names: William Cecil, after his ennoblement, is always referred to as Burghley. Hard to keep the people straight sometimes. But the book does a decent job with the overall politics and important people of the time. England was weak militarily compared to the other powers, so it had to compensate with intelligence.
Anyway, a good, easy read for those geeky enough to be interested in this sort of thing. Which is probably most of you reading this post.
The author has written a number of other popular culture-type books - "The Complete Story of Codebreaking in WWII", "The Character of Cats" - and obviously he's happy with his niche. The book is for popular reading, not for scholars (no footnotes, although there is a timeline and bibliography). This is not to denigrate the work; I'm enjoying it immensely. I took a 17th century History of Britain class in my undergrad days, but that was (mumble) years ago...
I always get annoyed at the English tradition of changing people's names: William Cecil, after his ennoblement, is always referred to as Burghley. Hard to keep the people straight sometimes. But the book does a decent job with the overall politics and important people of the time. England was weak militarily compared to the other powers, so it had to compensate with intelligence.
Anyway, a good, easy read for those geeky enough to be interested in this sort of thing. Which is probably most of you reading this post.
