James Shapiro Books

The Globe was born not from opportunity alone, but from crisis. When the lease on the Lord Chamberlain’s Men’s previous playhouse, The Theatre, expired late in 1598, the actors faced ruin. Yet what followed was both audacious and emblematic of Shakespeare’s epoch. In the dead of winter, the company ...

From A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599

In *Henry V*, Shakespeare captured a nation’s dream of unity at a moment when disunity threatened everywhere. The play’s central figure, King Henry, embodies decisive leadership and national purpose—qualities England sought but scarcely found as Essex’s forces faltered in Ireland. The resonance betw...

From A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599

In the early decades of the Republic, Shakespeare stood as a paradoxical cultural figure. He was the Old World poet par excellence, yet no American writer could yet rival his breadth or linguistic power. Figures like John Quincy Adams wrestled with what that meant. Adams was among the most erudite o...

From Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future

Few presidents read Shakespeare as deeply as Abraham Lincoln. During the crisis of the Union, Lincoln found solace and reckoning in the tragedies, particularly *Macbeth* and *Hamlet*. He quoted them in his letters and even in everyday conversation. To me, Lincoln’s engagement with these works reveal...

From Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future