Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- List of contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Charles I and Public Opinion on the Eve of the English Civil War
- 2 Rethinking Moderation in the English Revolution: The Case of An Apologeticall Narration
- 3 The Parish and the Poor in the English Revolution
- 4 Body Politics in the English Revolution
- 5 The franchise Debate Revisited: The Levellers and the Army
- 6 Oliver Cromwell and the Instrument of government
- 7 ‘de te fabula narratur’: The Narrative Constitutionalism of James Harrington's Oceana
- 8 Democracy in 1659: Harrington and the Good Old Cause
- 9 The Restoration of the Church of England, 1660–1662: Ordination, Re-ordination and Conformity
- 10 Style, Wit and Religion in Restoration England
- 11 A British Patriarchy? Ecclesiastical Imperialism under the Later Stuarts
- Index
- Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History
Preface and Acknowledgements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- List of contributors
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Charles I and Public Opinion on the Eve of the English Civil War
- 2 Rethinking Moderation in the English Revolution: The Case of An Apologeticall Narration
- 3 The Parish and the Poor in the English Revolution
- 4 Body Politics in the English Revolution
- 5 The franchise Debate Revisited: The Levellers and the Army
- 6 Oliver Cromwell and the Instrument of government
- 7 ‘de te fabula narratur’: The Narrative Constitutionalism of James Harrington's Oceana
- 8 Democracy in 1659: Harrington and the Good Old Cause
- 9 The Restoration of the Church of England, 1660–1662: Ordination, Re-ordination and Conformity
- 10 Style, Wit and Religion in Restoration England
- 11 A British Patriarchy? Ecclesiastical Imperialism under the Later Stuarts
- Index
- Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History
Summary
The debate over the nature of the English revolution has been one of the most contested of all historical issues from the beginning of modern English historiography, and it remains so today. Scholars are unable to agree on what caused it, when precisely it happened, how significant it was in terms of political, social, economic, and intellectual impact, or even whether it merits being described as a ‘revolution’ at all. In the two decades since John Morrill published a volume of his essays reflecting on these themes the debate has only become more complex. Leading historians have grappled with the problem of what is the appropriate geographical context within which to explain English events: England alone, the British Isles, or European post-reformation politics. They have also argued with renewed vigour about the best time frame for a ‘revolutionary’ experience: a martial and republican decade stretching from the outbreak of English conflict in 1642 to Cromwell's acceptance of the title lord protector in 1653; a longer mid-century upheaval running from Scottish rebellion in the late 1630s to the Restoration ‘settlement’ of 1660-2; or a return to older notions of a ‘century of revolution’ spanning the 1600s as a whole.
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- Information
- The Nature of the English Revolution Revisited , pp. vii - ixPublisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013