Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Pelican / Penguin (1963), Paperback, 267 pages
Description
Originally published in 1952 but here reissuing the updated edition of 1978, this book has long been established as a classic and a central text for students of seventeenth-century English history. The book covers every aspect of English life from the arrival of James I in England to the death of Queen Anne. The chapters on political history are organized chronologically, interspersed with thematic chapters which analyse change and development in family and social life, literature and the arts, scientific and philosophical ideas and the growth of the first British Empire.
User reviews
LibraryThing member jhw
Points of interest:
Cromwell on Barebones Parliament: "I am more troubled now with the fool than with the knave."
First public concerts date from Restoration: violin was introduced then.
Re James II's three questions of 1687:
i) Documents are now in Bodleian
ii) The enquiry only showed the King's
In Anne's reign real wages were higher than at any time since the reign of Henry VI.
Tory government took great trouble to get Asiento clause at Utrecht - shows Whigs weren't alone in their concern for trade.
Definitely the most disappointing volume of the series which I have read. The chapters on political history are dreary and uninspired - no attempt to highlight the significant points or clarify the chain of cause and effect. He seems to think that scholasticism and reason are mutually incompatible, and O.J.G. Welsh has pointed out in the Tablet how her has got the Secret Treaty of Dover all wrong. The most interesting chapter I found to be the one called 'A Ferment of Ideas 1640-60', which 'placed' for me a number of people whose importance had always been rather obscure - Chilligworth, the Cambridge Platonists, and Harrington, in particular.
(notes written 1954)
Cromwell on Barebones Parliament: "I am more troubled now with the fool than with the knave."
First public concerts date from Restoration: violin was introduced then.
Re James II's three questions of 1687:
i) Documents are now in Bodleian
ii) The enquiry only showed the King's
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enemies how strong they were.In Anne's reign real wages were higher than at any time since the reign of Henry VI.
Tory government took great trouble to get Asiento clause at Utrecht - shows Whigs weren't alone in their concern for trade.
Definitely the most disappointing volume of the series which I have read. The chapters on political history are dreary and uninspired - no attempt to highlight the significant points or clarify the chain of cause and effect. He seems to think that scholasticism and reason are mutually incompatible, and O.J.G. Welsh has pointed out in the Tablet how her has got the Secret Treaty of Dover all wrong. The most interesting chapter I found to be the one called 'A Ferment of Ideas 1640-60', which 'placed' for me a number of people whose importance had always been rather obscure - Chilligworth, the Cambridge Platonists, and Harrington, in particular.
(notes written 1954)
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LibraryThing member auntieknickers
A useful book which I believe was required reading for a course on Tudor and Stuart England I took some years ago.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1952
ISBN
none