A major new collection of essays by leading scholars of the social, political, economic and cultural situation of women and men in early modern Europe.

Feminist history continues to change the way history is written, and in doing so changes our view of the past. The authors of this collection explore how issues of sexuality, class, nationalism and colonialism informed the ways in which women were represented and continue to be represented in history. They show the ways in which women have been excluded, silenced and misrepresented in stories of the past, and how women's lives have been distorted or simplified in conventional historical accounts. Together, they suggest fresh ways of approaching women's history, and use examples of work in new areas of research such as women's health and leisure in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the various methodologies being proposed.

Bringing together the most important theoretical work defining the role and practices of culture, this volume provides a historical overview of the field. It includes a wide range of texts from nineteenth-century thinkers and contemporary theorists such as Raymond Williams and Antonio Gramsci, enabling the reader to construct their own maps of cultural studies, criticism and debate. The book focuses on the central issues of cultural criticism in America and Britain. Writers from Britain, America, as well as Europe, Asia and Africa are represented, bringing the reader up to date with current issues such as post-colonialism and identity politics. Each section is introduced with a general description of the field, its contents and practitioners and contains a bibliographical summary of the writer's work. A discussion of the future development of cultural studies concludes the book and this contains original interviews with leading commentators Stuart Hall and J Hillis Miller.

Bringing together the most important theoretical work defining the role and practices of culture, this volume provides a historical overview of the field. It includes a wide range of texts from nineteenth-century thinkers and contemporary theorists such as Raymond Williams and Antonio Gramsci, enabling the reader to construct their own maps of cultural studies, criticism and debate. The book focuses on the central issues of cultural criticism in America and Britain. Writers from Britain, America, as well as Europe, Asia and Africa are represented, bringing the reader up to date with current issues such as post-colonialism and identity politics. Each section is introduced with a general description of the field, its contents and practitioners and contains a bibliographical summary of the writer's work. A discussion of the future development of cultural studies concludes the book and this contains original interviews with leading commentators Stuart Hall and J Hillis Miller.

Exploiting the turbulence and strife of sixteenth-century France, the House of Guise arose from a provincial power base to establish themselves as dominant political players in France and indeed Europe, marrying within royal and princely circles and occupying the most important ecclesiastical and military positions. Propelled by ambitions derived from their position as cadets of a minor sovereign house, they represent a cadre of early modern elites who are difficult to categorise neatly: neither fully sovereign princes nor fully subject nobility. They might have spent most of their time in one state, France, but their interests were always 'trans-national'; contested spaces far from the major centres of monarchical power - from the Ardennes to the Italian peninsula - were frequent theatres of activity for semi-sovereign border families such as the Lorraine-Guise. This nexus of activity, and the interplay between princely status and representation, is the subject of this book. The essays in this collection approach Guise aims, ambitions and self-fashioning using this 'trans-national' dimension as context: their desire for increased royal (rather than merely princely) power and prestige, and the use of representation (visual and literary) in order to achieve it. Guise claims to thrones and territories from Jerusalem to Naples are explored, alongside the Guise 'dream of Italy', with in-depth studies of Henry of Lorraine, fifth Duke of Guise, and his attempts in the mid-seventeenth century to gain a throne in Naples. The combination of the violence and drama of their lives at the centres of European power and their adroit use of publicity ensured that versions of their strongly delineated images were appropriated by chroniclers, playwrights and artists, in which they sometimes featured as they would have wished, as heroes and heroines, frequently as villains, and ultimately as characters in the narratives of national heritage.