The latest edition of The Almanac of British Politics has been thoroughly revised and updated to include full details of the new constituencies following the comprehensive boundary changes which will come into force throughout the United Kingdom at the next election. It has firmly established itself as the definitive guide to the electoral map of the UK for nearly twenty-five years, covering in detail each of the constituencies sending representatives to the House of Commons. Its comprehensive coverage provides a witty and informative biographical profile of every Member of Parliament and a detailed social, demographic, economic and political analysis with statistics of seats to give the clearest picture of the British social and political landscape in the twenty-first century. This is the essential reference work on British politics for students, academics, journalists and psephologists.
Ben Jonson was one of the most important writers of the English Renaissance, and this study both reflects and contributes to the growing focus on the concrete details of his art and career. By examining specific works, particular historical circumstances, and complex relations with various individuals, author Robert C. Evans tries to locate Jonson's writings in the contexts that helped shape their artistry." "This book presumes that the more one knows about Jonson's various contexts, the more richly one can appreciate the complicated significance of the texts he produced. In fact, a major purpose of the book is the presentation of new archival data. The individual chapters all assume that Jonson could not ignore his relations with other people and the effects that those relations might have had on his life and writings." "The first chapter raises explicitly many of the questions involved in the historical study of literature, contributing to recent dialogue about the meaning and value of the so-called New Historicism. This chapter also offers one of the few sustained examinations of one of Jonson's most typical and significant poems, the epistle to Edward Sackville." "Chapter 2 suggests why Jonson's relations with rivals and patrons were particularly significant. It discusses one of his most important rivalries - the "poetomachia" - and its significance for the early years of his life as a writer. The chapter then jumps to the end of Jonson's career and emphasizes works he addressed to the Earl of Newcastle, one of his most important later patrons. This initial emphasis on patronage and rivalry recurs in one way or another in all the subsequent chapters, which follow a roughly chronological scheme." "Chapter 3 looks at the earliest and perhaps still the best of Jonson's great plays, Volpone, and explores new evidence suggesting that Jonson may have used this comedy to mock a powerful and wellknown contemporary. Chapter 4 explores The Devil is an Ass (1616) and attempts to suggest the very complicated political and social circumstances in which it was enmeshed. Chapter 5 tries to show how the important masque entitled Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue offered a detailed response to another aristocratic entertainment written a few months earlier, and chapter 6 surveys the poet's apparently contentious relations with the highly talented Thomas Campion." "Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the closing years of Jonson's career. They explore his little-known friendship with Joseph Webbe, an important language theorist whose ideas were quite controversial at the time, and examine Jonson's relations with significant Caroline patrons in an attempt to show the complicated ways in which the patronage "system" - so often discussed in the abstract could operate in actuality. A brief afterword summarizes some of the general critical assumptions on which all the preceding chapters are based."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
In 1624 James I invited Parliament to discuss issues of war and peace, setting a precedent that would make yet another inroad into the prerogatives of the crown. The "Happy Parliament" turned against the peace-loving King and supported war with Spain. Ruigh presents an absorbing narrative of the proceedings and their far-reaching consequences.
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