Oldridge, Darren 1966-

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Oldridge, Darren 1966-

PERSONAL:

Born July 24, 1966. Education: University of Warwick, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of Worcester, Henwick Grove, Worcester WR2 6AJ, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Academic. University of Worcester, Worcester, England, senior lecturer in history.

WRITINGS:

Religion and Society in Early Stuart England, Ashgate (Brookfield, VT), 1998.

(Editor) The Witchcraft Reader, Routledge (New York, NY), 2002, 2nd edition, 2008.

Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, the Walking Dead, and Other Matters of Fact from the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Born on July 24, 1966, Darren Oldridge earned a Ph.D. from the University of Warwick in England. He entered academia, becoming a senior lecturer in history at the University of Worcester. His research interests include English history, media history, and religious history.

Oldridge published his first book, Religion and Society in Early Stuart England, in 1998. The book looks into the conservative religious life of Puritans in the early Stuart period (the early seventeenth century) in England. Oldridge covers the conflicts between Laudian churchmen, Puritan ministers, and their followers. He also looks into the records kept from the period, outlining how certain rituals were performed and prepared for.

Paul S. Seaver, writing in Church History, commented that "Darren Oldridge leaves the reader in no doubt about his position on the contentious religious issues dividing early Stuart society, nor does he hedge his conclusions about with qualifications." Seaver also said that "the main outlines of Oldridge's interpretation would surely meet with general agreement, and Oldridge conscientiously notes where others have put forward, as well as disputed, his various interpretations. What is not entirely convincing is Oldridge's tendency to posit sharp dichotomies that allow for little ambiguity."

Oldridge then edited The Witchcraft Reader in 2002, publishing the second edition in 2008. In 2005, Oldridge published Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, the Walking Dead, and Other Matters of Fact from the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds. This account examines common beliefs and mindsets of Europeans in the medieval and Renaissance periods, many of which seem unbelievable to a modern readership. The book compiles stories from historical accounts covering a range of topics, including law, religion, and the supernatural realm. Oldridge asserts, however, that for the time period, the way of thinking was rational in relation to their knowledge of the world and its happenings.

A contributor to the Midwest Book Review remarked that "an intriguing worldview of the past is analyzed." Kristen Post Walton, writing in the International Social Science Review, said that Strange Histories "is well-researched." Walton concluded that "Oldridge has written a thought-provoking study that opens a door into the medieval and Renaissance-era mind. The book is a strong addition to standing introductions to the ‘other’ in the pre-modern age and gives a thorough introduction to the intellectual world of that era. Although a specialist will not find much that is new within the monograph, a non-specialist will find Strange Histories an excellent resource for understanding the ideas and moral structure of the past and will, perhaps, find a new way of looking at the twenty-first-century world in which we now live."

Yvonne Petry, writing in the Canadian Journal of History, noted that "while some historians may dislike such contemporary comparisons, they are effective, given the author's objectives and audience, and his historical analyses are convincing." Petry summarized that "Oldridge seems to take reports and confessions of witchcraft at face value, which is a problematic issue for historians in this field…. He also tends to downplay any chronological distinctions between the medieval and early modern periods. On the whole, however, Oldridge provides an intellectually integrated analysis of many topics at the heart of early modern scholarship and distills them for the non-specialist." David Cressy, reviewing the book in the Historian, mentioned that the author "writes here for ‘the general reader’ and keeps academic references to a minimum. Generous endnotes, however, indicate the wide range of reading in primary and secondary sources on which the study rests." Cressy concluded: "Lacking a profound analysis of historical cultural psychology, the work amounts to little more than a miscellany of arresting curiosities."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Journal of History, December 1, 2005, Yvonne Petry, review of Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, the Walking Dead, and Other Matters of Fact from the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds, p. 494.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, September, 2002, M.R. Pukkila, review of The Witchcraft Reader, p. 189; November, 2005, B. Lowe, review of Strange Histories, p. 562.

Church History, September 1, 1999, review of Religion and Society in Early Stuart England, p. 712.

Historian, fall, 2006, David Cressy, review of Strange Histories, p. 640.

History Magazine, April 1, 2005, review of Strange Histories, p. 50.

International Social Science Review, September 22, 2005, Kristen Post Walton, review of Strange Histories, p. 179.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, September 22, 2006, H.C. Erik Midelfort, review of Strange Histories, p. 270.

Journal of Modern History, June 1, 2000, Michael Questier, review of Religion and Society in Early Stuart England, p. 509.

Library Media Connection, April 1, 2004, review of Strange Histories, p. 72.

Medieval Review, September 1, 2005, Tom Cohen, review of Strange Histories.

Medievalia et Humanistica, January 1, 2006, review of Strange Histories, p. 147.

Midwest Book Review, October, 2005, review of Strange Histories.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 1998, review of Religion and Society in Early Stuart England, p. 16; August, 2002, review of The Witchcraft Reader, p. 7.

Sixteenth Century Journal, spring, 1999, Marjory E. Lange, review of Religion and Society in Early Stuart England, p. 143.

Women's History Review, spring, 2004, Marion Gibson, review of The Witchcraft Reader, p. 151.