San Antonio College Library

Sir William Howard (d. 1308) of East Winch, Norfolk, was the first notable Howard and progenitor of the Dukes of Norfolk. Some direct descendants were also the Earls of Surrey, Earls of Arundel, Queens of England, and various other nobility.

Eight short biographies of prominent but lesser-known Tudor figures reveal the rhythm and reaction between government and social life, both at the center of power and away from court.

This brilliant critique of the literature on modernity challenges the conventional approach in two fundamental ways. First, it argues that the lineage of the modern is much less ancient and glorious than is usually suggested. Modernity is an upstart rather than the scion of an old and celebrated line. It fabricated a grand genealogy for itself, whereas in fact its ancestry lies buried in the dirt. This leads to the second argument, namely, that modernity...