My basic problem with this book is that it is not so much history or even an examination of "Birth, Marriage and Death" in Tudor and Stuart England, but rather a long series of quotes from sources. Cressy doesn't seem to have any real agenda or point--he's not trying to prove anything. Instead, he just throws everything on the page for the reader to drawn their own conclusions. That could be good, but...his writing reads like this:
"With shifting emphasis and scope for additions, the issues raised by Latimer and Bonner would resound for more than a century: the efficacy of the service, on both spiritual and social levels; its role as a marker between clean and unclean states, as a sign of altered condition, and of renewed sexual contact between husbands and wives; whether the ceremony was a matter of law or custom, and the degree to which ecclesiastical authorities were concerned with its regulation; whether it could be performed in private or needed public display in the congregation; and how much of the responsibility for its conduct and interpretation came from the established church, 'sinister counsel', or from women themselves."
Note: that sentence was not the beginning or end of a chapter, part of the introduction, part of the conclusion--it was smack dab in the middle of the hundreds of pages about "churching". Cressy is like grad student who has done a lot of research but doesn't have anything to say. He just hopes if he writes 600 pages, people will assume he's added something to the discourse. ( )

I actually had to read this for an MA class in history and it's definitely a textbook of the Tudor and Stuart time period so it can be kind of dry. But it is thoroughly researched and offers up very important conclusions about the social life of the Tudor/Stuart period and anyone who wants the recent and best literature on the subject should read this book. ( )