CRESSY, David 1946–

PERSONAL:

Born April 4, 1946, in Isleworth, England; immigrated to the United States, 1972, naturalized U.S. citizen; married Valerie Steed (a teacher), August 20, 1966; children: Daniel, Benedict. Education: Clare College, Cambridge, B.A., 1967, M.A., 1971, Ph.D., 1973, D.Litt., 2000.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Claremont Colleges, Claremont, CA, began as instructor, became visiting associate professor of history, 1970-84; California State University, Long Beach, professor of history, 1984-98; Ohio State University, Columbus, professor of history, 1998—. Claremont Heritage, founder and director, 1976-86.

MEMBER:

North American Conference on British Studies, American Historical Association, Royal Historical Society (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Guggenheim fellow, 1978; fellow of National Endowment for the Humanities, 1981, 1990, 1996, 2004, and Huntington Library, 1997, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Education in Tudor and Stuart England, Edward Arnold (London, England), 1975.

Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1980.

Coming Over: Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

Bonfires and Bells, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1989.

(Editor, with Lori Anne Ferrell) Religion and Society in Early Modern England, Routledge (New York, NY), 1996, revised edition, 2005.

Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England: Tales of Discord and Dissension, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Society and Culture in Early Modern England, Ashgate Publishing (Burlington, VT), 2003.

England on Edge: Crisis and Revolution, 1640-1642, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

David Cressy once told CA: " Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England became the standard work on the distribution, progress, and value of literacy in early modern England and continues to stimulate papers and discussion. Coming Over: Migration and Communication between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century deals with both English and American history and stresses the English connections of the early colonists, many of whom experienced profound nostalgia for the old country. Bonfires and Bells examines the politics of the calendar, the vocabulary of celebration, and the orchestration of religious and political anniversaries between 1550 and 1700. It studies the development of a national Protestant political culture revolving around the memory of Queen Elizabeth, the Spanish Armada, and the Gunpowder Plot and shows how commemorative festivities that at first helped consolidate the crown and nation became politicized and divisive in the course of the seventeenth century. Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England explores the routine rites of passage in a divided religious culture, and it shows how critical moments in the life cycle became tests of religious and cultural conformity. Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England: Tales of Discord and Dissension examines the crises that resulted when ritual processes went wrong. England on Edge: Crisis and Revolution, 1640-1642 deals with cultural panic and religious disorder at a moment of revolutionary collapse."