The Elizabethan Age is arguably that greatest in English history. Furthermore it is not something dead and apart from us: it is alive and all around us. England contains the visible memorials of Elizabethan society: the houses they built; the objects they cherished; the patterns they imposed upon the very landscape. Rowse's classic study is a detailed account of that society and tradition from the lowest social class to the men and women who governed the realm. This reissue of Rowse's famously vivid portrayal of the Elizabethan world is complemented by a major introduction from Christopher Haigh which offers both a reflection on Rowse's masterpiece and an assessment of the Elizabethan Age.