Black takes readers on a tour of life in the streets, homes, farms, churches, and palaces of the Bard's era and shows how Shakespeare's plays would have been experienced and interpreted by those who paid to see them.

This interdisciplinary book assesses the causes of war, considering what war actually is-key for understanding its causes. Black marshals global examples from the fifteenth century to the present, analyzing the three main types of war-between cultures, within cultures, and civil-emphasizing the social and cultural factors leading to conflict.