Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives ed. by Heidi Brayman Hackel and Ian Frederick Moulton (review)

Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives explores the value and difficulties of teaching from early modern texts—texts now largely available electronically. Students can easily access wide-ranging canonical and non-canonical texts outside of critical editions; educators, therefore, need to understand the evolving potentials and pitfalls of student research. This collection of essays will interest such educators for two reasons. First, its topics are diverse, ranging from archival work in palaeography to virtual representations of early modern playing spaces. Second, as W. Scott Howard, Peggy Keeran, and Jennifer Bowers note, 'knowledge of how and why [any archive] was created gives insight into what it holds' (p. 155), and such knowledge is on display. Creators, curators, and directors of projects such as the Database of Early English Playbooks, English Broadside Ballad Archive, and Map of Early Modern London contribute, revealing the processes and reasons behind these resources.

Books about online resources can lose currency as the online environment evolves. For example, 'Finding Archives Online' (pp. 239–62) is still an invaluable departure point for any early modern researcher, directing us to over 150 essential electronic catalogues, repositories, and learning tools (such as The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), the British Library's Treasures in Full, or The National Archives' A Practical Online for palaeography). Unsurprisingly, some of its links have already changed or now fail to redirect users (for example, Emory Women Writers Resource Project or English Handwriting: An Online Course). Such links, though, can be easily googled and comprise only a small portion of this book's currency. This book will retain value because of its erudite and diverse contributors, whose essays will not only guide educators, but also archive the conceptual conundrums and practical experiences from a transitional period for educational and research technologies. Whether it's Lyn Tribble's anecdote about explaining physical card catalogues to a student trying to use an electronic catalogue as a general search engine, Arnold Sanders's experience of using 'cadaver books' (p. 49) so students can learn to handle books in low-risk situations, or Katherine Rowe's call for virtual representations of playing spaces for today's students (who are more familiar with novels' conventions) because 'Speech prefixes tell them who is talking [on stage], but they lose track of who is listening' (p. 65), this book is essential for all who facilitate early modern research, but who might not necessarily have trained in teaching and/or technology.