• Finalist for the 2006 Wayland D. Hand Prize for an Outstanding Publication in Folklore and History

Sharpe's readable little book sheds light on the history, myth and fiction surrounding the conspiracy and its enduring marks in the culture today.
   --John H. Carroll, Catholic News Service

A reminder that such religiously inspired terrorism is part of the history of the modern West.
   --Peter Steinfels, New York Times

[Sharpe's] lively short book is a compressed cultural history of Guy Fawkes Day...There is plenty of interest in his analysis of the changing character of a major popular festival.
   --Eamon Duffy, New York Review of Books

James Sharpe has written an engaging essay on the changing meaning over the centuries of Guy Fawkes Day, the commemoration on November 5 of England's deliverance from the Gunpowder Plot...Sharpe's enjoyable book traces the different ways in which the date has been celebrated between the seventeenth century and modern times.
   --Keith Thomas, New York Review of Books

James Sharpe is Professor of History at University of York.