Books by Barbara J. Shapiro

This book surveys all the channels through which political ideas and knowledge were conveyed to the English public, from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I to the Revolution of 1688, with the goal of understanding the web of communication in creating political life.

Barbara J. Shapiro traces the surprising genesis of the "fact," a modern concept that, she convincingly demonstrates, originated not in natural science but in legal discourse. She follows the concept's evolution and diffusion across a variety of...