What's in a Name? - by Susan Dwyer Amussen (Hardcover)

About the Book

In What's in a name?, historian Susan Amussen traces William Shakespeare's life through early modern England to show how a glover's son could have become the world's greatest author.

Book Synopsis

A compelling tour of Shakespeare's England that makes a powerful contribution to the 'authorship question'.

How do we know Shakespeare was Shakespeare? Could a glover's son who left school at fifteen really be the author behind such masterpieces as Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest?

Yes! says historian Susan Amussen. She transports readers back to early modern England, to travel the path that carried William Shakespeare from humble origins in Stratford to literary greatness on the London stage. This was a society undergoing rapid change. Grammar schools made education in Latin and Greek available to commoners, while touring players brought the latest dramatic productions to the masses. And in London, a metropolis filled with European visitors, ordinary people had the opportunity to see courtly life up close.

No serious historian doubts that Shakespeare was the author of the plays that bear his name. Susan Amussen shares what they know: that Shakespeare's England was a complex and cosmopolitan place, with everything a talented young playwright needed to develop his craft and furnish his imagination.

From the Back Cover

How do we know Shakespeare was Shakespeare? Could a glover's son who left school at fifteen really be the author behind such masterpieces as Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest?

Yes! says historian Susan Amussen. She transports readers back to early modern England, to travel the path that carried William Shakespeare from humble origins in Stratford to literary greatness on the London stage. This was a society undergoing rapid change. Grammar schools made education in Latin and Greek available to commoners, while touring players brought the latest dramatic productions to the masses. And in London, a metropolis filled with European visitors, ordinary people had the opportunity to see courtly life up close.

No serious historian doubts that Shakespeare was the author of the plays that bear his name. Susan Amussen shares what they know: that Shakespeare's England was a complex and cosmopolitan place, with everything a talented young playwright needed to develop his craft and furnish his imagination.

Review Quotes

'Authoritative, illuminating and readable - the account of an eminent historian who knows Shakespeare's world inside out.'
Laura Gowing, Professor of Women's and Early Modern History, King's College London

About the Author

Susan D. Amussen is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Merced. She is the author of several books, most recently Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1603: Turning the World Upside Down, co-written with David Underdown (2017). She serves as co-editor of volume III of The New Cambridge History of Britain (2025). While her primary work has been as a social historian focused on gender, race and class, her research has been used extensively by literary scholars, with whom she has been in conversation for over thirty years.