Britain in Revolution: 1625-1660

This is the definitive history of the English Civil War, set in its full historical context from the accession of Charles I to the Restoration of Charles II. These were the most turbulent years of British history and their reverberations have been felt down the centuries. Throughout the middle decades of the seventeenth century England, Scotland, and Ireland were convulsed by political upheaval and wracked by rebellion and civil war. The Stuart monarchy was in abeyance for twenty years in all three kingdoms, and Charles I famously met his death on the scaffold. Austin Woolrych breathes life back into the story of these years, the sweep of his prose buttressed by the authority of a lifetime's scholarship. He captures the drama and the passion, the momentum of events and the force of contingency. He brilliantly interweaves the history of the three kingdoms and their peoples, gripping the reader with the fast-paced yet always balanced story.

Table of Contents:
Prologue I: Background and Beginnings 1625-1640 1: King Charles's Inheritance, i: Three Kingdoms, Three Peoples 2: King Charles's Inheritance, ii: The Matter of Religion 3: The New Reign 4: Storm over Scotland 5: The Bishops' Wars II: War in Three Kingdoms 1640-1646 6: Climacteric 7: Three Kingdoms in Crisis 8: The Blast of War 9: The Conflict Widens 10: Towards a Resolution III: Towards a Kingless Britain 1646-1649 11: Between Two Wars 12: Climacteric II: 'Not a Mere Mercenary Army' 13: The Second Civil War 14: Quest for a Settlement IV: the Commonwealth 1649-1653 15: The Commonwealth at War 16: The Commonwealth in Crisis 17: 'A Story of My Own Weakness and Folly'? V: Cromwell's Protectorate 1653-1658 18: A New Order in Three Nations 19: The First Phase of Cromwellian Rule 20: 'A Single Person and a Parliament' 21: Royalists in Arms, Swordsmen in the Saddle 22: King or Constable? 23: The Protectorate in Scotland, Ireland, and Europe 24: Unfinished Business VI: The Collapse of the Good Old Cause 1658-1660 25: The Overthrow of the Protectorate 26: The Commonwealth Restored 27: The Monarchy Restored Epilogue Further Reading Index

Review :
`Review from previous edition The author writes clearly and brings to his subject years of research, teaching and, most important, reflection ... readers will be rewarded by Prof. Woolrych's clarity and understanding.' Contemporary Review `deeply learned ... and elegantly written ... Always informative and often illuminating' Times Higher Education Supplement `It is the fullest general account of this period we have ever had, and it will inevitably become a standard work of reference ... students ... will find Woolrych a reliable guide.' TLS `Making sense of the origins and course of ... [the civil war] has been, notoriously, one of the toughest assignments an English historian can essay. Here we have the finest synthesis yet produced.' Sunday Telegraph Review `Drawing on half a century of research and reflection, it deploys a depth and range of knowledge, and an authority of judgement, that no other historian could hope to match. In graceful, self-effacing, perfectly weighted prose Woolrych guides us irresistibly through the tangled events of the 1640s and 1650s and stamps his own vision on them. For as long as is imaginable his book will be the vade-mecum of everyone, from the scholar to the newcomer, who wants to learn about the civil wars. ... I can think of no other history book of recent times that has controlled so large and so demanding a subject so skilfully and satisfyingly. It is a wonderful achievement.' Sunday Telegraph `The book is a fitting crown to a lifetime of scholarly achievement.' The Spectator `Austin Woolrych has now written probably the only book on the English Civil War that you are ever likely to need. ... The result is an absolute triumph.' Literary Review `Austin Woolrych has given his book a title suitable for a textbook, but this blockbuster of a study is much more than a survey of the period. It represents a summation of half a century's reflection on a complex period of British history, and lives up to the claim implied in the title that Britain and not England is under scrutiny ... In looking for comparators for Britain in Revolution, one must dismiss all the textbook rivals ... This book is a sure guide to mid-seventeenth-century Britain, and is unlikely to be rivaled for many years to come.' H-Net Book Review `the masterwork of a highly distinguished historian' History