The Experience of Revolution in Stuart Britain and Ireland

Description

This volume ranges widely across the social, religious and political history of revolution in seventeenth-century Britain and Ireland, from contemporary responses to the outbreak of war to the critique of the post-regicidal regimes; from royalist counsels to Lilburne's politics; and across the three Stuart kingdoms. However, all the essays engage with a central issue - the ways in which individuals experienced the crises of mid seventeenth-century Britain and Ireland and what that tells us about the nature of the Revolution as a whole. Responding in particular to three influential lines of interpretation - local, religious and British - the contributors, all leading specialists in the field, demonstrate that to comprehend the causes, trajectory and consequences of the Revolution we must understand it as a human and dynamic experience, as a process. This volume reveals how an understanding of these personal experiences can provide the basis on which to build up larger frameworks of interpretation.

Michael J. Braddick is Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Sheffield. His previous publications include State Formation in Early Modern England (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and God's Fury, England's Fire: A New History of the English Civil Wars (2009). David L. Smith is Fellow, Director of Studies in History and Graduate Tutor at Selwyn College, Cambridge. His previous publications include Parliaments and Politics During the Cromwellian Protectorate (as co-author, Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Royalists and Royalism During the Interregnum (as co-editor, 2010).

'This collection of fourteen essays, contributed by academic historians taught by [Professor] Morrill, is published to mark his 65th birthday. Quite naturally they are centred on seventeenth-century English history, [Professor] Morrill's field ... The contributions, relatively short due to the total number, will give insights into the latest views into this highly debated period.' Contemporary Review 'The volume ranges widely across social, religious and political history.' Northern History