Reading Room - Historical & Political Contexts

John Gillies, Shakespeare and the Geography of Difference (1994) – pioneering study of the combination of historical, geographical and ethnographic contexts for several key plays

Andrew Hadfield, Shakespeare and Renaissance Politics (2003) – clear introductory study

Alvin Kernan, Shakespeare, the King's Playwright (1995) – may overstate its case for specific allusions and occasions of performance, but very effective in placing Shakespeare firmly in the Jacobean court

Ania Loomba, Shakespeare, Race and Colonialism (2002) – balanced introduction to a hot topic

Shakespeare's England ( 2 vols, 1916) – nearly a hundred years old, so not to be trusted on matters of historical interpretation, but there is no better compendium of information about life and customs in Shakespeare's England, always tied to references in the plays; includes everything from court tilts to falconry to printing shops

James Shapiro, Shakespeare and the Jews (1996) – has implications well beyond the figure of Shylock

Theodore Spencer, Shakespeare and the Nature of Man (1943) – invaluable intellectual context

E. W. Talbert, The Problem of Order: Elizabethan Political Commonplaces and an Example of Shakespeare's Art (1962) – in its method of reading Shakespeare in the context of sixteenth century theories of law and the 'commonwealth', this book is forty years ahead of its time

Robin Headlam Wells, Shakespeare, Politics and the State (1986) – very useful mix of analysis and extracts from period documents

There are hundreds more fine books on Shakespeare, but anyone who reads The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works from cover to cover and then devours a reasonable proportion of the above will have earned the right to consider themselves an exceptionally highly informed Shakespearean.