Reviews

What they say about ….

History of Old Age, 1600-1800, 8 vols, with S. Ottaway:

Botelho and Ottaway have produced a very rich collection of sources.  For those looking for a quick take on the historiography, the introductions are concise and reliable.  For readers who are looking for potent primary sources, the documents have much to offer. … We owe them all a major debt.  (David Troyansky, Social History, 2010).

Old Age and the English Poor Law:

Lynn Botelho’s recent study …. is a brilliant demonstration of how the local outcomes of national welfare polices were affected by the economic and social conditions in particular parishes.  (Patricia Crawford, Parents of Poor Children in England, 1580-1800, 2010).Botelho’s brilliant reconstruction …

There is much else to admire here..

… can now repent at their leisure, for Botelho’s brilliant reconstruction….

This is easily the most sophisticated study yet available … and will be required reading for students of the Elizabethan poor laws and of the social history of the ageing.  (Steve Hindle, Economic History Review, 2005).

L. A. Botelho’s fascinating study…

This carefully planned, skillfully executed, and thought-provoking study nevertheless throws much light on the linked themes of old age, poverty, and poor relief in early modern English history.  (Ralph Houlbrooke, American Historical Review, 2006).

… but it has rarely been so persuasively documented.  …   (Paul Slack, The English Historical Review, 2005).

Botelho’s most innovative chapter dissects her material .. to shed light on the ‘marginally poor’ of the parish, those who were neither rate-payers nor pensioners.  Such individuals have been virtually ignored by history, and Botelho labours valiantly to fill this void.

By thickly describing the local economic and social context in which the poor relief system … functioned, she is able to argue convincingly for the critical import of the local economy … in determining the character of poor relief.  (Susannah Ottaway, Rural History, 2006).

Women and Ageing:

… the path-breaking article by Lynn Botelho (Lyndal Roper, Witch Craze, 2004).

The contributors muster a dazzling array of sources …. [and] the creative and judicious use of this wide assortment of source materials is a distinctive feature of this volume.  Botelho’s ‘Old Age and Menopause’… is exceedingly well organized, focuses on a generally negected topic, and would provoke lively conversation.  ( Colleen Seguin, H-Net Reviews, 2001).

Churchwardens’ Accounts of Cratfield

This excellent edition … Botelho is to be congratulated for her excellent editorial work on text, notes, indexes and on her glossary of technical terms and phonetic spellings.  (Thomas Sokoll, The Economic History Review, 2002).

The World of John Winthrop:

Only in this latest book, coedited with Lynn A. Botelho, do we see the triumph of a truly Atlantic approach. (The American Historical Review, 2006).

The collection as a whole is a grand success.  (Thomas W. Jodziewicz, The Journal of American History, 2007).

As a contributor in A History of Old Age, edited by Pat Thane:

“Sumptuous” is the first world to describe A History of Old Age.  To this visual feast Thane solicited felicitous and judicious commentaries by seven experts on the history of old age….. No more expensive than many monographs nowadays, it is tempting [to] recommend that readers by two copies of  A History of Old Age — one for a working library and another for the coffee table.  (W. Andrew Achenbaum, Journal of Social History, 2007).