Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Biography | Hacker News Reader

Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Biography

nationalreview.com

38 pointssignor_bosco13 comments

For a great BBC mini-series based on Cromwell's story watch Wolf Hall ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Hall_(miniseries)

The books by Hillary Mantel that it's based on are even better (2 Booker prizes).

Her novel A Place of Greater Safety about the French Revolution is also really good.

I like Mantel too but I thought this novel (her first I think) was too long. Better in my mind are "Beyond Black" and "A Year in Ghazzah Street".

Yes, though also mentioned very early in this article as perhaps not the most accurate portrayal :)

Based on what the article says about Cromwell, most of Wolf Hall is roughly the same, apart from Cromwell's family background.

The only critique I can really find is that his father may not have been as violent as portrayed.

Wolf Hall is fascinating, and I'd thoroughly recommend it (the books and the series), because it paints Cromwell in a modern light. He's basically written as a shrewd and competent Lawyer/Accountant. Maybe the sortof person who, in our time, could launch a successful business or be a partner in a law firm. But in that time, his skills are so unusual that he runs rings around almost everyone around him, and lays foundations that would shape the country for centuries to come. There's also a lot more to it than that, but the modern-ness of his skillset is very striking.

The Guardian featured a podcast with Diarmaid MacCulloch - the author of Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Biography. As an added bonus the podcast also features a discussion with Ken Krimstein who wrote a graphic novel about Hannah Arendt [0]. The discussion of Cromwell begins at 26:05.

[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2018/nov/27/the-art-...

Also on the BBC Booktalk a week or so ago :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bvxl31/booktalk-diar...

Irish person here. It should be noted that the Irish have a completely different perspective on Cromwell. He is usually regarded here as a genocidal maniac because he wiped out between 15% - 80% of the Irish population [1], depending on the historian you believe. Not a nice man in any case, or someone to be admired.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwellian_conquest_of_Irelan...

That's a different Cromwell.

Oliver and Richard Cromwell are collateral descendants of Thomas Cromwell [0]. I'm unsure if it's true but apparently there also a belief that, notwithstanding Oliver Cromwell's actions in Ireland, the Cromwell family has partly Irish origins.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromwell_family

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