Reviews for The politics of court scandal in early modern England

The average rating for The politics of court scandal in early modern England based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-12-29 00:00:00 Shad Granius Really brilliant. The author almost completely ignores the scandal itself and instead focusses on how news of the Overbury murder was received by the country (the mechanisms of news dissemination in a pre-mass media environment; the political spin various competing factions were placing on the news, etc etc). It is impossible to get to the truth of the scandal now - or even to know for certain that Overbury was in fact murdered. But Bellany argues the truth is of far less importance than the effect perceptions of what was reported had on political discourse. He shows quite convincingly that James's nepotistic and self-serving handling of the scandal dangerously associated the monarchy with corruption, luxury and moral degradation and laid the foundations for the ideological divisions which ultimately led to the Civil War.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-03 00:00:00 William Gray The style in which this book is written is very conscientious and clear. This is a great introduction to critical linguistics as well as how to analyze news representation. Definitely recommended.