Thomas Cromwell: A Life By Diarmaid MacCulloch

Diarmaid MacCulloch’s doctoral supervisor Geoffrey Elton deemed that Thomas Cromwell was “unbiographable”. MacCulloch’s attempt is an interesting, scholarly and comprehensive account, but ultimately proves his mentor right. The central problem is that very few of 1846144299 Arrived earlier than expected well wrapped and in lovely condition thanks to the seller I am extremely happy as this was a replacement that had been given to a charity shop by mistake by a member of my family. So pleased to have this book as a replacement. 1846144299 Dieses Buch ist ein Geschichtswerk, kein Roman. Was die Geschichte an Cromwell interessiert, ist seine Wirkung sowohl als Reformator als auch als Staatsmann, der die Politik Englands auf Jahrhunderte hin prägte, nicht so sehr seine Person. Dass das geleistet wird, wird besonders im letzten Kapitel deutlich. Wer sich mehr zur Person Cromwell erwartet, sollte die Romane von Mantel lesen, denn so verstandene Biographie trägt meist romanhafte Züge und nicht geschichtswissenschaftliche.Das Werk ist mit ca. 550 Textseiten lang und ausführlich, aber ich empfinde den Stil als angenehm und durchaus nicht langweilig oder langatmig. Natürlich ist das kein literarisches fast food, das Buch liest sich nicht an drei Abenden, aber dafür beleuchtet es die Aspekte, mit denen Mantel, besonders in ihrem letzten Band, nicht zurechtgekommen ist, nämlich die Gründe für den Fall Cromwells und warum sich einige seiner engsten Mitarbeiter gegen ihn wandten, aufzuzeigen.Ich habe sehr vieles über die Zeit Heinrichs des Achten gelernt, was ich bislang nicht wusste. Es korrigiert einige sehr populäre (Vor)Urteile gegenüber Heinrich und seinen Motiven.Ein Interesse an Geschichte und nicht nur Geschichten vorausgesetzt, ist das ein äußerst wertvolles Buch. 1846144299 Got it day of release, took it and read it on a half term holiday in Cyprus. So first thing to say, is it's a big old tome, you won't need any sun cream on your chest if you read it by the pool that's for sure! So, who is it suitable for? It has an academic focus 1846144299 The author's meticulous research into original documents, combined with his racy style, bring to life one of the under appreciated movers & shakers who in the 16th century did so much to bring the modern world to birth. 1846144299

I came to this book, like so many others, because of Hilary Mantel's novels about Cromwell, and also because I've seen several television documentaries by Diarmaid MacCulloch, where he is always clear, interesting, humorous, obviously very knowledgeable, and doesn't talk 1846144299 The time, effort and sheer scale of this research that has gone into this book is worthy of 5 stars alone. As with all the authors' books absolutely engrossing and informative and it is difficult to believe a better biography of Cromwell has been or will be written. 1846144299 Who really was this man? I studied him in depth, I thought, when writing a novel 'The Woman in the Shadows' inspired by his wife and whilst writing this novel I realized by the 1520s Cromwell was most likely a closet evangelical, ambitious and pragmatic. I wish I had read 1846144299 I suspect this book will become the premier biographical work from the pen of Diarmaid MacCulloch. Which in some ways I regret, as for me, although his biography of Cromwell is a better read, the subject of his earlier biography (Thomas Cranmer) was even interesting 1846144299 I have read a number of the author's previous works so I knew what to expect. I was glad I bought the Kindle version as this is literally a weighty tome but that has its drawbacks. This is an academic life and there is a scaffolding of sources. Sometimes the scaffolding 1846144299

characters Thomas Cromwell: A Life

A SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES, GUARDIAN, BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR'This is the biography we have been awaiting for 400 years' Hilary Mantel'A masterpiece' Dan Jones, Sunday TimesThomas Cromwell is one of the most famous or notorious figures in English history. Born in obscurity in Putney, he became a fixer for Cardinal Wolsey in the 1520s. After Wolsey's fall, Henry VIII promoted him to a series of ever greater offices, and by the end of the 1530s he was effectively running the country for the King. That decade was one of the most momentous in English history: it saw a religious break with the Pope, unprecedented use of parliament, the dissolution of all monasteries. Cromwell was central to all this, but establishing his role with precision, at a distance of nearly five centuries and after the destruction of many of his papers at his own fall, has been notoriously difficult.Diarmaid MacCulloch's biography is much the most complete and persuasive life ever written of this elusive figure, a masterclass in historical detective work, making connections not previously seen. It overturns many received interpretations, for example that Cromwell was a cynical, 'secular' politician without deep felt religious commitment, or that he and Anne Boleyn were allies because of their common religious sympathies in fact he destroyed her. It introduces the many different personalities of these foundational years, all conscious of the 'terrifyingly unpredictable' Henry VIII. MacCulloch allows readers to feel that they are immersed in all this, that it is going on around them.For a time, the self made 'ruffian' (as he described himself) ruthless, adept in the exercise of power, quietly determined in religious revolution was master of events. MacCulloch's biography for the first time reveals his true place in the making of modern England and Ireland, for good and ill. Thomas Cromwell: A Life