How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life

How to Be a Tudor is billed as “a dawn-to-dusk guide to Tudor life.” The author, Ruth Goodman, commits herself to her research. She shares her experiences of lower- and middle-class daily habits. The text covers the late fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. She carefully explains people's views on sex, organized religion, and childbirth. Then goes into detail about education work, immigration, cleanliness, food and clothing. As she experienced many of these practical aspects of Tudor life makes the book full of day to day details.

This isn't the first time Goodman has immersed herself in a bygone era. She previously tackled the 19th century in How to Be a Victorian. For those fervently hoping for an identical experience will find How to Be a Tudor doesn't quite reach the same breadth of detail. But that's no surprise, given that the literacy rates of Tudor England were comparatively low. Naturally therefor documentation is trickier to come by.

Ruth has done a great job of accurately describing a fascinating era of British history. It prompts us that we're never as far from the past as we like to think. This is a must have for every history enthusiast and aspiring historian.