What would really educate people on the 'way it really was' would be to read Eamon Duffy's 'The Stripping of the Altars' and 'Voices of Morebath'. The scholarship is impeccable since Duffy used documents, books and period writings that were previously never touched, thus preventing the true story of England's Reformation from being honestly addressed. Duffy's credentials are impeccable and he is universally regarded as one of the foremost experts on this period in history. To read his works forces you to relearn/rethink everything you thought you knew about the English Reformation.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-2759702-6824008?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Eamon%20Duffy
I'm sorrry! I post so little that I forget how to make a link!
I’ve read Duffy’s first book, but thanks for the tip on the second. What shook me was how much reformers like Cranmer are like the liberal reformers of Post-V2, and how much their mass is like his liturgical reforms. If only they had Cranmer’s ear for musical English.