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A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England
'A wonderfully stylish, gloriously technicolour book' - NANDINI DAS
'An absolute joy to read' - DR STEPHANIE PRATT
'A sparkling cabinet of curiosities' - CAROLINE DODDS PENNOCK
'A glittering account' - MIRANDA MALINS
From rumours of lost Amazonian cities of gold to the silver running through the mountains of Bolivia, hopes for dazzling wealth fuelled the imperial fantasies of the Tudors and Stuarts. But while stories of treasure ships and privateers like Walter Raleigh have become entrenched in national myths - what did Elizabethans actually know about Mexico, the Amazon rainforest, or the Chesapeake? How did Indigenous people and knowledge enter the art, fashion, and literature of Shakespeare's time - and at what cost?
A Golden World illuminates how the Americas became a visible and material presence in English culture, through a range of unexpected from tobacco leaves strewn in playhouses to a boy wearing a pearl earring. Award-winning historian Lauren Working presents an altogether new history of the 'golden age' of 16th century England, that considers the desire for power, land and resources in the first era of colonization, alongside the craft and labour of those in the Americas who contributed to the English Renaissance as we know it.
'An absolute joy to read' - DR STEPHANIE PRATT
'A sparkling cabinet of curiosities' - CAROLINE DODDS PENNOCK
'A glittering account' - MIRANDA MALINS
From rumours of lost Amazonian cities of gold to the silver running through the mountains of Bolivia, hopes for dazzling wealth fuelled the imperial fantasies of the Tudors and Stuarts. But while stories of treasure ships and privateers like Walter Raleigh have become entrenched in national myths - what did Elizabethans actually know about Mexico, the Amazon rainforest, or the Chesapeake? How did Indigenous people and knowledge enter the art, fashion, and literature of Shakespeare's time - and at what cost?
A Golden World illuminates how the Americas became a visible and material presence in English culture, through a range of unexpected from tobacco leaves strewn in playhouses to a boy wearing a pearl earring. Award-winning historian Lauren Working presents an altogether new history of the 'golden age' of 16th century England, that considers the desire for power, land and resources in the first era of colonization, alongside the craft and labour of those in the Americas who contributed to the English Renaissance as we know it.
- GenresHistory
467 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2026
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June 2, 2026The Tradescants’ Ark makes an appearance in Lauren Working’s book too, along with a few others points of overlap. Working’s remit, though considerable, is more circumscribed than Das’: the cultural impact of the Americas on England, specifically London, between the 1570s and the 1630s. Where Das follows individuals, Working is concerned with the trajectory of things, and with using the migrations of plants, animals, artefacts, and objects to uncover ‘the tangible imprints that indigenous peoples across the Americas made on Tudor and Stuart society’.
This book, too, is a determined deconstruction of any notion of a self-generated belle époque. An insightful analysis of a Jacobean painting in the Tate, Nathaniel Bacon’s ‘Cookmaid With Still Life’, points not just to a range of transatlantic foodstuffs on display – marrows, squashes, pumpkins, runner beans – but to how the vibrant red of Bacon’s work was cochineal, a pigment produced from insects harvested and crushed by indigenous labourers in Central America. Other chapters follow the movement of ethnographic watercolours, Aztec codices, and the silver pouring out of the mines at Potosí. There is fascinating discussion of beaver-fur hats, so ubiquitous in Jacobean portraits, and of the potency of feathers, exotic imports of which turbocharged an established industry of complex feather-working. Colombian emeralds were shipped to Europe ‘on an industrial scale’ and appeared to Elizabethans ‘a kind of portable Eden, seeming to carry the fertility and brightness of nature itself’. Nor, Working argues, can the aesthetics of the era be understood without reference to an inward flood of Atlantic pearls, all-purpose adornments for pendants, purses, clothes, book covers, devotional objects, and garden grottoes.
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Peter Marshall is Professor of History at the University of Warwick.
This book, too, is a determined deconstruction of any notion of a self-generated belle époque. An insightful analysis of a Jacobean painting in the Tate, Nathaniel Bacon’s ‘Cookmaid With Still Life’, points not just to a range of transatlantic foodstuffs on display – marrows, squashes, pumpkins, runner beans – but to how the vibrant red of Bacon’s work was cochineal, a pigment produced from insects harvested and crushed by indigenous labourers in Central America. Other chapters follow the movement of ethnographic watercolours, Aztec codices, and the silver pouring out of the mines at Potosí. There is fascinating discussion of beaver-fur hats, so ubiquitous in Jacobean portraits, and of the potency of feathers, exotic imports of which turbocharged an established industry of complex feather-working. Colombian emeralds were shipped to Europe ‘on an industrial scale’ and appeared to Elizabethans ‘a kind of portable Eden, seeming to carry the fertility and brightness of nature itself’. Nor, Working argues, can the aesthetics of the era be understood without reference to an inward flood of Atlantic pearls, all-purpose adornments for pendants, purses, clothes, book covers, devotional objects, and garden grottoes.
Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...
Peter Marshall is Professor of History at the University of Warwick.
September 21, 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐
**A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England by Lauren Working**
I went into *A Golden World* really excited by the premise because I love historical nonfiction that takes something we think we already understand and makes us look at it from a completely different angle. The Tudor and Stuart periods are so often presented through familiar figures, political events, royal drama, exploration, and the idea of England entering a kind of “golden age,” but Lauren Working takes a much broader approach by asking how the Americas actually shaped the world that Renaissance England was becoming. I found this to be a fascinating and thought-provoking read, particularly because it looks beyond the usual stories of explorers and treasure and instead focuses on the objects, people, knowledge, labour, and cultural influences that made the Americas increasingly visible in English life.
One of the things I appreciated most about this book was the way Working challenges the traditional idea that the Americas simply expanded England's geographical horizons. The book makes a much more interesting argument by showing how encounters with the Americas became part of English culture itself. The Americas weren't some distant place existing separately from Renaissance England. They began appearing in the things people consumed, wore, collected, displayed, wrote about, and imagined. I really enjoyed seeing this connection developed throughout the book.
The use of objects and material culture was probably one of my favourite aspects. Rather than relying solely on famous historical figures and major political events, Working looks at unexpected objects and details to demonstrate how these connections worked. Tobacco leaves appearing in playhouses, pearls and jewellery, artworks, fashion, literature, and other material objects become evidence of a much larger cultural transformation. I found this approach really effective because it makes history feel tangible. Instead of simply being told that England was influenced by the Americas, we can see those influences appearing in everyday and cultural life.
I especially liked the discussion of what Elizabethans actually knew about places such as Mexico, the Amazon, and the Chesapeake. There is a really interesting tension between knowledge, imagination, rumour, and fantasy throughout the book. Stories of lost cities of gold, incredible wealth, exotic landscapes, and enormous resources helped create an image of the Americas that was often as much about English desires as it was about reality.
The fascination with gold and silver is particularly important. The title *A Golden World* captures that obsession really well, because the book explores both the literal desire for wealth and the much broader fantasy surrounding the Americas. The hope of finding enormous riches helped fuel imperial ambitions and encouraged people to imagine what England could become if it gained access to these resources.
I appreciated that the book doesn't simply present these ambitions as adventurous stories of exploration. It also examines the darker realities behind them. The pursuit of land, wealth, and resources was inseparable from colonisation and the exploitation of Indigenous and African people. Working makes space for the people whose knowledge, labour, skills, and cultures contributed to the world that English Renaissance culture eventually claimed as its own.
That was one of the strongest elements of the book for me. It is easy when reading about the Renaissance to focus on the famous English figures and treat the period as an isolated cultural achievement. *A Golden World* instead asks us to think about the much wider network of people and places that made that culture possible. I found this particularly valuable because it complicates the idea of the English Renaissance without taking away from its cultural importance.
The discussion of Indigenous knowledge and influence was especially interesting. I liked seeing how Indigenous people weren't simply treated as passive figures appearing in European accounts, but as people whose knowledge and cultural practices entered English consciousness in different ways. At the same time, the book doesn't romanticise these encounters. There is an important awareness of the power imbalance involved and the cost of turning Indigenous knowledge, objects, and resources into things that Europeans could collect, consume, reinterpret, or profit from.
I also really enjoyed the way the book connects these historical encounters with literature and art. Knowing that the Americas were becoming part of the cultural imagination during Shakespeare's lifetime adds another layer to the Renaissance. It made me think differently about the supposedly familiar world of Elizabethan England and how much of it was already connected to a rapidly changing global environment.
The book also does a great job of showing how complicated the idea of a “golden age” really is. On the surface, Renaissance England can be presented as a period of creativity, wealth, exploration, and cultural achievement. But Working shows that there were darker threads running through this golden picture. The wealth and cultural excitement associated with the period were connected to imperial fantasies, colonisation, extraction, and the exploitation of people and resources.
I thought that tension was handled particularly well. The book doesn't simply replace one simplified version of history with another. Instead, it gives us a more complicated picture. England was changing, but that change was being shaped by encounters with the Americas in ways that could be exciting, fascinating, violent, exploitative, creative, and deeply unequal all at once.
Another thing I appreciated was how much detail there is throughout the book. There are so many fascinating little pieces of information that I hadn't really considered before, and I enjoyed seeing how individual objects could reveal much larger historical connections. It has that feeling of opening a cabinet of curiosities and finding that every object has another story hidden behind it.
That said, this is definitely a book that requires some concentration. There is a lot of information to take in, and there were moments when I found myself wanting to slow down and absorb everything before moving on. While I enjoyed the level of detail overall, some sections felt denser than others, and I think readers who aren't already interested in early modern history might find certain parts a little challenging.
I also occasionally wanted a slightly stronger sense of connection between some of the individual examples. The objects and stories are fascinating in their own right, but there were moments when I wanted the broader argument to be brought back into focus a little more clearly. These are fairly minor criticisms, though, because the overall picture Working creates is incredibly interesting.
What I took away most strongly from *A Golden World* is that history is rarely as isolated as we sometimes imagine it to be. Renaissance England was not simply developing within its own borders. It was being shaped by encounters, exchanges, violence, ambition, curiosity, and the movement of people, objects, resources, and ideas across the Atlantic.
I also really appreciated that this book makes history feel connected to physical things. A tobacco leaf, a pearl earring, a work of art, or an object brought across the Atlantic can tell us something about much larger cultural changes. Those details make the history feel much more immediate and helped me understand just how deeply the Americas were entering English culture.
Overall, I found *A Golden World* to be a fascinating and beautifully detailed piece of historical nonfiction. I loved the focus on material culture, the exploration of Indigenous and African influences, and the way Lauren Working challenges the traditional image of Renaissance England. It is a book that asks readers to look beyond the familiar stories of Tudor and Stuart England and consider the much wider world that was shaping it.
It wasn't always the easiest or quickest read for me, and some sections were denser than others, which is why it lands at four stars rather than five. But I came away from it feeling like I had learned a lot and, more importantly, that I was thinking about the Renaissance in a different way. I really appreciated the way Working brings together art, literature, objects, people, empire, wealth, and cultural exchange to create a much more complicated picture of this supposedly “golden” period.
*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
**A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England by Lauren Working**
I went into *A Golden World* really excited by the premise because I love historical nonfiction that takes something we think we already understand and makes us look at it from a completely different angle. The Tudor and Stuart periods are so often presented through familiar figures, political events, royal drama, exploration, and the idea of England entering a kind of “golden age,” but Lauren Working takes a much broader approach by asking how the Americas actually shaped the world that Renaissance England was becoming. I found this to be a fascinating and thought-provoking read, particularly because it looks beyond the usual stories of explorers and treasure and instead focuses on the objects, people, knowledge, labour, and cultural influences that made the Americas increasingly visible in English life.
One of the things I appreciated most about this book was the way Working challenges the traditional idea that the Americas simply expanded England's geographical horizons. The book makes a much more interesting argument by showing how encounters with the Americas became part of English culture itself. The Americas weren't some distant place existing separately from Renaissance England. They began appearing in the things people consumed, wore, collected, displayed, wrote about, and imagined. I really enjoyed seeing this connection developed throughout the book.
The use of objects and material culture was probably one of my favourite aspects. Rather than relying solely on famous historical figures and major political events, Working looks at unexpected objects and details to demonstrate how these connections worked. Tobacco leaves appearing in playhouses, pearls and jewellery, artworks, fashion, literature, and other material objects become evidence of a much larger cultural transformation. I found this approach really effective because it makes history feel tangible. Instead of simply being told that England was influenced by the Americas, we can see those influences appearing in everyday and cultural life.
I especially liked the discussion of what Elizabethans actually knew about places such as Mexico, the Amazon, and the Chesapeake. There is a really interesting tension between knowledge, imagination, rumour, and fantasy throughout the book. Stories of lost cities of gold, incredible wealth, exotic landscapes, and enormous resources helped create an image of the Americas that was often as much about English desires as it was about reality.
The fascination with gold and silver is particularly important. The title *A Golden World* captures that obsession really well, because the book explores both the literal desire for wealth and the much broader fantasy surrounding the Americas. The hope of finding enormous riches helped fuel imperial ambitions and encouraged people to imagine what England could become if it gained access to these resources.
I appreciated that the book doesn't simply present these ambitions as adventurous stories of exploration. It also examines the darker realities behind them. The pursuit of land, wealth, and resources was inseparable from colonisation and the exploitation of Indigenous and African people. Working makes space for the people whose knowledge, labour, skills, and cultures contributed to the world that English Renaissance culture eventually claimed as its own.
That was one of the strongest elements of the book for me. It is easy when reading about the Renaissance to focus on the famous English figures and treat the period as an isolated cultural achievement. *A Golden World* instead asks us to think about the much wider network of people and places that made that culture possible. I found this particularly valuable because it complicates the idea of the English Renaissance without taking away from its cultural importance.
The discussion of Indigenous knowledge and influence was especially interesting. I liked seeing how Indigenous people weren't simply treated as passive figures appearing in European accounts, but as people whose knowledge and cultural practices entered English consciousness in different ways. At the same time, the book doesn't romanticise these encounters. There is an important awareness of the power imbalance involved and the cost of turning Indigenous knowledge, objects, and resources into things that Europeans could collect, consume, reinterpret, or profit from.
I also really enjoyed the way the book connects these historical encounters with literature and art. Knowing that the Americas were becoming part of the cultural imagination during Shakespeare's lifetime adds another layer to the Renaissance. It made me think differently about the supposedly familiar world of Elizabethan England and how much of it was already connected to a rapidly changing global environment.
The book also does a great job of showing how complicated the idea of a “golden age” really is. On the surface, Renaissance England can be presented as a period of creativity, wealth, exploration, and cultural achievement. But Working shows that there were darker threads running through this golden picture. The wealth and cultural excitement associated with the period were connected to imperial fantasies, colonisation, extraction, and the exploitation of people and resources.
I thought that tension was handled particularly well. The book doesn't simply replace one simplified version of history with another. Instead, it gives us a more complicated picture. England was changing, but that change was being shaped by encounters with the Americas in ways that could be exciting, fascinating, violent, exploitative, creative, and deeply unequal all at once.
Another thing I appreciated was how much detail there is throughout the book. There are so many fascinating little pieces of information that I hadn't really considered before, and I enjoyed seeing how individual objects could reveal much larger historical connections. It has that feeling of opening a cabinet of curiosities and finding that every object has another story hidden behind it.
That said, this is definitely a book that requires some concentration. There is a lot of information to take in, and there were moments when I found myself wanting to slow down and absorb everything before moving on. While I enjoyed the level of detail overall, some sections felt denser than others, and I think readers who aren't already interested in early modern history might find certain parts a little challenging.
I also occasionally wanted a slightly stronger sense of connection between some of the individual examples. The objects and stories are fascinating in their own right, but there were moments when I wanted the broader argument to be brought back into focus a little more clearly. These are fairly minor criticisms, though, because the overall picture Working creates is incredibly interesting.
What I took away most strongly from *A Golden World* is that history is rarely as isolated as we sometimes imagine it to be. Renaissance England was not simply developing within its own borders. It was being shaped by encounters, exchanges, violence, ambition, curiosity, and the movement of people, objects, resources, and ideas across the Atlantic.
I also really appreciated that this book makes history feel connected to physical things. A tobacco leaf, a pearl earring, a work of art, or an object brought across the Atlantic can tell us something about much larger cultural changes. Those details make the history feel much more immediate and helped me understand just how deeply the Americas were entering English culture.
Overall, I found *A Golden World* to be a fascinating and beautifully detailed piece of historical nonfiction. I loved the focus on material culture, the exploration of Indigenous and African influences, and the way Lauren Working challenges the traditional image of Renaissance England. It is a book that asks readers to look beyond the familiar stories of Tudor and Stuart England and consider the much wider world that was shaping it.
It wasn't always the easiest or quickest read for me, and some sections were denser than others, which is why it lands at four stars rather than five. But I came away from it feeling like I had learned a lot and, more importantly, that I was thinking about the Renaissance in a different way. I really appreciated the way Working brings together art, literature, objects, people, empire, wealth, and cultural exchange to create a much more complicated picture of this supposedly “golden” period.
*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
September 21, 2026
This is a difficult book to review. The author is an historian and this book is a fresh look at the history of 16th century England and its relationship with the Americas. How the privateers brought precious gems, metals, foodstuffs and other goods back to England but at what was often at a terrible cost to the indigenous population of the countries they exploited.
The author has found lots of evidential material to back up her assertions. England was not alone in financing ships to sail to the Americas intent on colonisation and claiming local resources for the Crown. And it wasn’t just physical resources they brought back but cultural resources and heritage which found its way into the arts and fashion of England.
The Tudors and Stuart’s is my favourite period of British history so I found this fascinating. Unlike most fiction books which I read in a day I read this over the course of a week as it was easy to dip in and out. There are so many interesting facts in the book. For example after silver, cochineal was the most lucrative substance to come from Central America, I can remember my mother using this when she was baking. In October 1577, three Inuit captives were forcibly brought to the port city of Bristol, my hometown, they all died within a few weeks having no immunity to common diseases at that time. So much I didn’t know it’s an entertaining and educational read.
The author has found lots of evidential material to back up her assertions. England was not alone in financing ships to sail to the Americas intent on colonisation and claiming local resources for the Crown. And it wasn’t just physical resources they brought back but cultural resources and heritage which found its way into the arts and fashion of England.
The Tudors and Stuart’s is my favourite period of British history so I found this fascinating. Unlike most fiction books which I read in a day I read this over the course of a week as it was easy to dip in and out. There are so many interesting facts in the book. For example after silver, cochineal was the most lucrative substance to come from Central America, I can remember my mother using this when she was baking. In October 1577, three Inuit captives were forcibly brought to the port city of Bristol, my hometown, they all died within a few weeks having no immunity to common diseases at that time. So much I didn’t know it’s an entertaining and educational read.
June 4, 2026
This book has been called 'perspective-shifting' and for me at least, it really was. This is Tudor history as you know it, and yet full of details I had never considered. Anne Boleyn's hilarious rejection of a monkey from Brazil. The sheer levels of obsession with American gold mines at the court of Queen Elizabeth. The Indigenous artefacts that were sitting in mansions on the Thames. The pearls. These aren't just fascinating stories, the author builds it into a bigger picture of how travelling things came to change the worldview of the Tudors and Stuarts in long-lasting ways. Highly recommend!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews