Genres: History and Biography

Jenkins's Elizabeth the Great can be categorized in the genres, or categories, of both history and biography. As biography, it focuses on the life of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Jenkins focuses particularly on the significance of Queen Elizabeth as a great woman in history, explaining her unusual status as a female monarch at a time in history when women were not expected to hold political power. Jenkins also offers some psychological analysis of the queen, explaining some of her political and personal decisions as consequences of traumatic events in her childhood. As a history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabeth the Great provides historical accounts of important events affecting the reign of Elizabeth. Jenkins also focuses on the element of cultural history in the life of Queen Elizabeth I, spending considerable space describing the lifestyles of the nobility and privileged...