In The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer tells readers what they could expect to find if they visited that era: what they would eat, where they would live, how they would travel. Like modern travel guides, he discusses language, currency, units of measurement and polite behavior. If the physical details of everyday life were all that Mortimer considered, though, this would be no more than another "daily life in" account of Elizabethan England. The extraordinary aspect of the book is the way he uses those details to illuminate ideas central to the Elizabethan world view, from the intersection of science, religion and magic to a new sense of history and new ideas about England itself.
Mortimer's interpretation of Elizabethan England is richer and darker than the familiar "golden age" of poetry, drama, seafaring and expansion. Elizabeth's Anglican compromise was under attack from both Catholics and more radical Protestants. A growing population and poor harvests overburdened medieval structures for dealing with the poor. Violence was pervasive, from official acts of torture to alehouse knifings. Comparing Elizabeth's England not only to the present but also to its medieval roots (which he wrote about in a previous time traveler's guide), he presents the period as one of uncertainty, contradiction and change.
The past is indeed a different country; Ian Mortimer is a reliable guide. --Pamela Toler, blogging at History in the Margins