Robert O. Bucholz

About

Robert O. Bucholz (D. Phil., University of Oxford, 1988; A.B. Cornell University, 1980) is a professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, where he teaches courses on the history of early modern Great Britain, the city of London and Western Civilization.

Professor Bucholz is a leading authority on the history of the British court, the social history of early modern England, and the emergence of London as global cultural center during and after the sixteenth century.  He has written numerous articles and book chapters which have appeared in The Court Historian, the Journal of British Studies, and other publications. Bucholz’s most recent book, London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750(Cambridge University Press, 2012) with J. P. Ward, has been described as a “remarkably successful attempt to describe how the city reached the cusp of 'modernity,' how it emerged from relative obscurity in the middle of the sixteenth century to become . . .  'the greatest city in Europe.'”  His best-selling Early Modern England, 1485-1714: A Narrative History (3rd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), co-authored with N. E. Key, traces the transformation of England during the Tudor–Stuart period, from a feudal European state to a constitutional monarchy and the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.  Bucholz’s examination of the British court appears in The Augustan Court: Queen Anne and the Decline of Court Culture (Stanford University Press, 1993); Queens and Power in Early Modern England (University of Nebraska Press, 2009), edited with C. Levin; and Officials of the Royal Household, 1660-1837, edited with Sir John Sainty.  His most recent work examines the changing ideals regarding body image in seventeenth-century England and their impact upon the imperial court.  Bucholz has appeared frequently as a public speaker and in local, national, and international media outlets to comment on historical and royal topics ranging from the Tudors to the Titanic, Plague and Fire in London to royal births, weddings and funerals.

Bucholz is completing two books: Courtiers: A Social and Cultural History of the British Court, 1660-1784 (contracted to Oxford University Press); and Density's Children: Transgressive Bodies in Early Modern England, 1550-1750.  He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the American Branch of the Society for Court Studies and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Professor Bucholz is widely-known for his teaching, in particular for his courses London: a Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World (2009); Foundations of Western Civilization II: a History of the Modern World (2006); and England From the Tudors to the Stuarts (2003), all distributed by The Great Courses. He received the LSGA/ Maroon and Gold Faculty Member of the Year Award (2015), the Langerbeck Faculty Research Mentor Award (2021), the Provost's Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshmen (2013), was the Loyola Nominee for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching in 2004 and 2008, the Loyola Honors Program Teacher of the Year in 1998 and 1999, and the inaugural recipient of the Edwin T. and Vivijeanne F. Sujack Award for Teaching Excellence in 1994.

Professor Bucholz is the Project Director of the Database of Court Officers 1660-1837, which provides authoritative career information for every person who served in a salaried position in the British royal household between the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 and the death of Queen Victoria.

Research Interests

Early-modern Britain, British Court and Royal Household 1660-1901, Early-modern London

Courses Taught

HIST 101 The Evolution of Western Ideas and Institutions to the Seventeenth Century

HIST 102 The Evolution of Western Ideas and Institutions since the Seventeenth Century

HIST 258A:  Blood, Heresy, and Treason Under the Tudors and Stuarts

HIST 265A: The First World War

HIST 318A: Early Modern England, 1485-1760

HIST 318C - London 1550 – 1715

HIST 376H: Honors Colloquium

Constructing the Queen: Images of Elizabeth I, with Regina Buccola, Newberry Library Undergraduate Seminar, 2003.

London Town and Bath Spa: Two Constructions of Eighteenth Century Urbanity, with Caryn Chaden, Newberry Library Undergraduate Seminar, 2000.

Order and Disorder in Early Modern England 1450-1750 (graduate and undergraduate versions)

University Seminar

Selected Publications

London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750 with J. P. Ward (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

“The Stomach of a Queen or Size Matters: Gender, Body Image, and the Historical Reputation of Queen Anne” in Queens and Power in Early Modern England, ed. C. Levin and R. Bucholz (University of Nebraska Press, 2009).

Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History, with N.E. Key (Basil Blackwell, Ltd., 2004; 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, 3rd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2019).

Officials of the Royal Household 1660-1837, ed. With Sir John Sainty, 2 vols. (Institute of Historical Research, 1997-98).

The Augustan Court: Queen Anne and the Decline of Court Culture (Stanford University Press, 1993).