LibGuides: Revolution & Independence World History (1620 -1815): Books & eBooks

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A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution by Jeremy D. Popkin This book offers students a concise and clearly written overview of the events of the Haitian Revolution, from the slave uprising in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 to the declaration of Haiti's independence in 1804. Draws on the latest scholarship in the field as well as the author's original research Offers a valuable resource for those studying independence movements in Latin America, the history of the Atlantic World, the history of the African diaspora, and the age of the American and French revolutions Written by an expert on both the French and Haitian revolutions to offer a balanced view Presents a chronological, yet thematic, account of the complex historical contexts that produced and shaped the Haitian Revolution
Daily Life in 18th-Century England Informative, richly detailed, and entertaining, this book portrays daily life in England in 1700-1800, embracing all levels of society--from the aristocracy to the very poor--to describe a nation grappling with modernity. * Chronicles daily life in a place and time that was critical in forming the consumerism, industrialization, scientific thinking, and family structures of our modern world * Provides fascinating detail on the lives of people at different levels of social strata, not just the upper classes * Includes excerpts from seldom- or never-anthologized primary sources * Incorporates information from recent scholarship about 18th-century England, especially regarding gender roles
Defining Documents in World History: Revolutions by Shally-Jensen, Michael, editor. Also available in print
The Encyclopedia of War Journalism 1807-2010 Up-to-date through 2010, this edition examines the development, history and current state of war journalism. From the Mexican War in 1846 to the current Conflicts in the Middle East and everything in between, this important reference tool provides a unique, around the world look at how conflicts were covered. Explore the influences of the flow of information on the battlefield and the home front.
The Enlightenment by Patrice Sherman How did the universe work? How did the human mind learn? What kind of government was best? These are some of the questions that people asked during the Age of Ideas, or the Enlightenment. Readers will learn about some of the most important aspects, ideas, and people of this time, including John Locke, David Hume, Voltaire, Copernicus, and Romanticism. Through intriguing facts and engaging sidebars, readers will discover the incredible outcomes of the Scientific Revolution and how scientists like Galileo, Isaac Newton, and Johannes Kepler changed the way people see the world! The captivating images and supportive text work together to teach readers about the impact the French Revolution had on the French people, and the influence it had on the American Revolution. This book also includes an in-class writing activity to allow students to think deeply to understand John Locke's theories.
Europe, 1450-1789 : Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World This new detailed set explores European history from 1450-1789, from the print revolution to the French Revolution. The set's 1,150 articles, written by eminent scholars, cover major topics in art, government and education as well as providing biographical entries on key figures of the period. In addition, the set covers topics specific to the era, such as apocalypticism, guilds, food riots, royal mistresses and lovers, the Spanish inquisition, Utopia and others. Each volume includes a color frontispiece and an eight-page color insert. Features include approximately 750 black-and-white photographs, 30 maps, a year-by-year chronology, a topical outline and index, a research guide and a comprehensive index.
Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England This book concerns the history of the family in eighteenth-century England. Tadmor provides a new interpretation of concepts of household, family and kinship through her analysis of contemporary language (in diaries, conduct treatises, novels by Richardson and Haywood, and other sources). She emphasizes the importance of the household in constructing notions of the family, and shows how ties of "friendship" formed vital social, economic and political networks. Her book makes a substantial contribution to eighteenth-century history, and will be of value to all historians and literary scholars of the period.
The French Revolution, 1789-1799 by Peter McPhee This book provides a succinct yet up-to-date and challenging approach to the French Revolution of 1789-1799 and its consequences. Peter McPhee provides an accessible and reliable overview and one which deliberately introduces students to central debates among historians. The book has two main aims. One aim is to consider the origins and nature of the Revolution of 1789-99. Why was there a Revolution in France in 1789? Why did the Revolution follow its particular course after 1789? When was it 'over'? A second aim is to examine the significance of the Revolutionary period in accelerating the decay of Ancien Regime society. How 'revolutionary' was the Revolution? Was France fundamentally changed as a result of it? Of particular interest to students will be the emphasis placed by the author on the repercussions of the Revolution on the practives of daily life: the lived experience of the Revolution. The author's recent work on the environmental impact of the Revolution is also incorporated to provide a lively, modern, and rounded picture of France during this critical phase in the development of modern Europe.
The French Revolution and Napoleon The upheavals, terror, and drama of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic period restructured politics and society on a grand scale, making this the defining moment for modern European history. This volume collects together a wide selection of primary texts to explain the process behind the enormous changes undergone by France and Europe between 1787 and 1815, from the Terror to the Counter-Revolution and from Marie-Antoinette to Robespierre and Bonaparte. While bringing the impact of historical events to life, Philip Dwyer and Peter McPhee provide a clear outline of the period through key documents and lucid introductory passages and commentary. They illustrate the meaning of the Revolution for peasants, sans-culottes, women, and slaves, as well as placing events within a wider European context.. Students will find this an invaluable source of information on the Revolution as a whole as well as the international significance of the events.
Great Events from History: The 17th Century, 1601-1700 Included in this set are milestones in the geopolitics of the 17th century - from the Thirty Years' War to the War of the League of Augsburg, and from Europeans' arrival in Australia to the establishment of the Louisiana Colony.
Great Events from History: The 18th Century, 1701-1800 The events covered in this twovolume set include the important geopolitical events of the era-from the War of the Spanish Succession through the American and French Revolutions.
Great Events from History: The Nineteenth Century (1801-1900) These four volumes provide coverage on the most important developments from 1801 through 1900, including the struggle to end slavery, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and the expansion of democracy in the Western world.
Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women: Crime, Transportation, and the Servitude of Female Convicts, 1718-1783 In Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women, Edith M. Ziegler recounts the history of British convict women involuntarily transported to Maryland in the eighteenth century. Great Britain's forced transportation of convicts to colonial Australia is well known. Less widely known is Britain's earlier program of sending convicts--including women--to North America. Many of these women were assigned as servants in Maryland. Titled using epithets that their colonial masters applied to the convicts, Edith M. Ziegler's Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women examines the lives of this intriguing subset of American immigrants. Basing much of her powerful narrative on the experiences of actual women, Ziegler restores individual faces to women stripped of their basic freedoms. She begins by vividly invoking the social conditions of eighteenth-century Britain, which suffered high levels of criminal activity, frequently petty thievery. Contemporary readers and scholars will be fascinated by Ziegler's explanation of how gender-influenced punishments were meted out to women and often ensnared them in Britain's system of convict labor. Ziegler depicts the methods and operation of the convict trade and sale procedures in colonial markets. She describes the places where convict servants were deployed and highlights the roles these women played in colonial Maryland and their contributions to the region's society and economy. Ziegler's research also sheds light on escape attempts and the lives that awaited those who survived servitude. Mostly illiterate, convict women left few primary sources such as diaries or letters in their own words. Ziegler has masterfully researched the penumbra of associated documents and accounts to reconstruct the worlds of eighteenth-century Britain and colonial Maryland and the lives of these unwilling American settlers. In illuminating this little-known episode in American history, Ziegler also discusses not just the fact that these women have been largely forgotten, but why. Harlots, Hussies, and Poor Unfortunate Women makes a valuable contribution to American history, women's studies, and labor history.
When Information Came of Age : Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850 Although the Information Age is often described as a new era, a cultural leap springing directly from the invention of modern computers, it is simply the latest step in a long cultural process. Its conceptual roots stretch back to the profound changes that occurred during the Age of Reason andRevolution. When Information Came of Age argues that the key to the present era lies in understanding the systems developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to gather, store, transform, display, and communicate information. The book provides a concise and readable survey of the many conceptual developments between 1700 and 1850 and draws connections to leading technologies of today. It documents three breakthroughs in information systems that date to the period: the classification and nomenclature of Linnaeus, thechemical system devised by Lavoisier, and the metric system. It shows how eighteenth-century political arithmeticians and demographers pioneered statistics and graphs as a means for presenting data succinctly and visually. It describes the transformation of cartography from art to science as itincorporated new methods for determining longitude at sea and new data on the measure the arc of the meridian on land. Finally, it looks at the early steps in codifying and transmitting information, including the development of dictionaries, the invention of semaphore telegraphs and naval flagsignaling, and the conceptual changes in the use and purpose of postal services. When Information Came of Age shows that like the roots of democracy and industrialization, the foundations of the Information Age were built in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
World Eras: The Industrial Revolution in Europe, 1750-1914 World Eras is patterned after the award-winning American Decade's series. Covering areas often overlooked by other publications, World Eras provides a multicultural approach that directly reflects changing curriculum standards, with a cross-disciplinary overview of world history and a strong emphasis of daily life and social history.Each volume in this set contains in-depth coverage of one era and is organized into ten chapters: World events -- A Chronology Geography The Arts -- Sculpture, Architecture, Painting and Music Communications, Transportation and Exploration Social class Systems and the Economy -- focusing on social-economic hierarchy Politics, Law and the Military Leisure, Recreation and Daily life -- housing, clothing, food, education, etc. Family and Social Trends -- customs, beliefs, roles and responsibilities Religion and Philosophy Science, Technology and HealthEach volume includes an introductory essay that provides context and overview of the era written by a scholar in the field and will contain 150 photographs, line drawings, diagrams, illustrations and sidebars. Each chapter within a volume includes an introductory essay, a timeline, entries on specific topics, events or movements, biographies of prominent individuals, and important publications of the era. A glossary of subject-specific terms appears at the end of the book.

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The American Revolution The American Revolution gave birth to a new world republic and a philosophy based on freedom, liberty, and equality. The philosophical concepts articulated by the revolutionary leaders have become a model of positive change for people around the world. This concise reference guide includes an overview essay that traces the course of the Revolution and five essays on various aspects of the conflict.
The Cause by Joseph J. Ellis In one of the most "exciting and engaging" (Gordon S. Wood) histories of the American founding in decades, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis offers an epic account of the origins and clashing ideologies of America's revolutionary era, recovering a war more brutal, and more disorienting, than any in our history, save perhaps the Civil War.For more than two centuries, historians have debated the history of the American Revolution, disputing its roots, its provenance, and above all, its meaning. These questions have intrigued Ellis--one of our most celebrated scholars of American history--throughout his entire career. With this much-anticipated volume, he at last brings the story of the revolution to vivid life, with "surprising relevance" (Susan Dunn) for our modern era. Completing a trilogy of books that began with Founding Brothers, The Cause returns us to the very heart of the American founding, telling the military and political story of the war for independence from the ground up, and from all sides: British and American, loyalist and patriot, white and Black.Taking us from the end of the Seven Years' War to 1783, and drawing on a wealth of previously untapped sources, The Cause interweaves action-packed tales of North American military campaigns with parlor-room intrigues back in England, creating a thrilling narrative that brings together a cast of familiar and long-forgotten characters. Here Ellis recovers the stories of Catherine Littlefield Greene, wife of Major General Nathanael Greene, the sister among the "band of brothers"; Thayendanegea, a Mohawk chief known to the colonists as Joseph Brant, who led the Iroquois Confederation against the Patriots; and Harry Washington, the enslaved namesake of George Washington, who escaped Mount Vernon to join the British Army and fight against his former master.Countering popular histories that romanticize the "Spirit of '76," Ellis demonstrates that the rebels fought under the mantle of "The Cause," a mutable, conveniently ambiguous principle that afforded an umbrella under which different, and often conflicting, convictions and goals could coexist. Neither an American nation nor a viable government existed at the end of the war. In fact, one revolutionary legacy regarded the creation of such a nation, or any robust expression of government power, as the ultimate betrayal of The Cause. This legacy alone rendered any effective response to the twin tragedies of the founding--slavery and the Native American dilemma--problematic at best.Written with the vivid and muscular prose for which Ellis is known, and with characteristically trenchant insight, The Cause marks the culmination of a lifetime of engagement with the founding era. A landmark work of narrative history, it challenges the story we have long told ourselves about our origins as a people, and as a nation.
The Clockwork Universe : Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World New York Times bestselling author Edward Dolnick brings to light the true story of one of the most pivotal moments in modern intellectual history--when a group of strange, tormented geniuses invented science as we know it, and remade our understanding of the world.
Fire and Light : How the Enlightenment Transformed Our World "With this profound and magnificent book, drawing on his deep reservoir of thought and expertise in the humanities, James MacGregor Burns takes us into the fire's center. As a 21st-century philosopher, he brings to vivid life the incandescent personalities and ideas that embody the best in Western civilization and shows us how understanding them is essential for anyone who would seek to decipher the complex problems and potentialities of the world we will live in tomorrow." --Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 "James MacGregor Burns is a national treasure, and Fire and Light is the elegiac capstone to a career devoted to understanding the seminal ideas that made America - for better and for worse - what it is." --Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning author Revolutionary Summer Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling historian James MacGregor Burns explores the most daring and transformational intellectual movement in history, the European and American Enlightenment In this engaging, provocative history, James MacGregor Burns brilliantly illuminates the two-hundred-year conflagration of the Enlightenment, when audacious questions and astonishing ideas tore across Europe and the New World, transforming thought, overturning governments, and inspiring visionary political experiments. Fire and Light brings to vivid life the galaxy of revolutionary leaders of thought and action who, armed with a new sense of human possibility, driven by a hunger for change, created the modern world. Burns discovers the origins of a distinctive American Enlightenment in men like the Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, and their early encounters with incendiary European ideas about liberty and equality. It was these thinker-activists who framed the United States as a grand and continuing experiment in Enlightenment principles. Today the same questions Enlightenment thinkers grappled with have taken on new urgency around the world: in the turmoil of the Arab Spring, in the former Soviet Union, and China, as well as in the United States itself. What should a nation be? What should citizens expect from their government? Who should lead and how can leadership be made both effective and accountable? What is happiness, and what can the state contribute to it? Burns's exploration of the ideals and arguments that formed the bedrock of our modern world shines a new light on these ever-important questions.
The Glorious Revolution : 1688, Britain's Fight for Liberty Heeding the call of England's ruling class, the Dutch Prince William ofOrange landed with a massive invasion force and within six weeksexpelled the Catholic King James II in 1688. In what was largelyheralded as a bloodless revolution, William and his English wife Mary,James II's Protestant daughter, were crowned joint monarchs, acceptingthe Declaration of Rights that affirmed Parliament's ancient rights. Itwas a turning point in Britain's march toward universal suffrage andliberties. But as acclaimed historian Edward Vallance reveals, theGlorious Revolution was characterized by warfare and bloody massacre(especially for Catholics and Irishmen), affected the rights of thecommon man in ways traditional histories have ignored, and engaged theBritish populace in the affairs of government as never before. Athriller-paced book--rich in seventeenth-century first-person accounts ofthe bloodshed and political machinations of the period--that turns everydebate about this great historical event on its head.
Napoleon's Wars : An International History, 1803-1815 A glorious'and conclusive'chronicle of the wars waged by one of the most polarizing figures in military history Acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic as a new standard on the subject, this sweeping, boldly written history of the Napoleonic era reveals its central protagonist as a man driven by an insatiable desire for fame, and determined 'to push matters to extremes.'
The Oxford Handbook of the French Revolution The Oxford Handbook of the French Revolution brings together a sweeping range of expert and innovative contributions to offer engaging and thought-provoking insights into the history and historiography of this epochal event. Each chapter presents the foremost summations of academic thinking onkey topics, along with stimulating and provocative interpretations and suggestions for future research directions.Placing core dimensions of the history of the French Revolution in their transnational and global contexts, the contributors demonstrate that revolutionary times demand close analysis of sometimes tiny groups of key political actors - whether the king and his ministers or the besieged leaders of theJacobin republic - and attention to the deeply local politics of both rural and urban populations. Identities of class, gender and ethnicity are interrogated, but so too are conceptions and practices linked to citizenship, community, order, security, and freedom: each in their way just as central torevolutionary experiences, and equally amenable to critical analysis and reflection.This volume covers the structural and political contexts that build up to give new views on the classic question of the "origins of revolution"; the different dimensions of personal and social experience that illuminate the political moment of 1789 itself; the goals and dilemmas of the period ofconstitutional monarchy; the processes of destabilisation and ongoing conflict that ended that experiment; the key issues surrounding the emergence and experience of 'terror'; and the short- and long-term legacies, for both good and ill, of the revolutionary trauma - for France, and for globalpolitics.
Restoration England, 1660-1699 In a period marked by a number of great diarists, England after the Civil War was a place of pleasure and drama. Indulgences such as coffee-houses and frost fairs were enjoyed by some, while the fashion for displaying finery lent itself to a new style of shopping.
Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific An award-winning scholar explores the sixty-thousand-year history of the Pacific islands in this dazzling, deeply researched account. The islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia stretch across a huge expanse of ocean and encompass a multitude of different peoples. Starting with Captain James Cook, the earliest European explorers to visit the Pacific were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving thousands of miles from continents. Who were these people? From where did they come? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such vast tracts of ocean?   In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas from late prehistory onward. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from genetics, linguistics, and archaeology, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the seagoing technologies that enabled them, and the societies they left in their wake.

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The Enlightenment : A Very Short Introduction A foundational moment in the history of modern European thought, the Enlightenment continues to be a reference point for philosophers, scholars and opinion-formers. To many it remains the inspiration of our commitments to the betterment of the human condition. To others, it represents theelevation of one set of European values to the world, many of whose peoples have quite different values. But what is the relationship between the historical Enlightenment and the idea of "Enlightenment", and can these two understandings be reconciled?In this Very Short Introduction, John Robertson offers a concise historical introduction to the Enlightenment as an intellectual movement of eighteenth-century Europe. Discussing its intellectual achievements, he also explores how its supporters exploited new ways of communicating their ideas to awider public, creating a new "public sphere" for critical discussion of the moral, economic and political issues facing their societies.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
The French Revolution : A Very Short Introduction '[William Doyle] writes on the French Revolution with more understanding, balance and clarity than any other historian, living or dead.' -Prof. Tim Blanning, University of Cambridge
The Industrial Revolution: A Very Short Introduction The "Industrial Revolution" was a pivotal point in British history that occurred between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries and led to far reaching transformations of society. With the advent of revolutionary manufacturing technology productivity boomed. Machines were used to spinand weave cloth, steam engines were used to provide reliable power, and industry was fed by the construction of the first railways, a great network of arteries feeding the factories. Cities grew as people shifted from agriculture to industry and commerce. Hand in hand with the growth of cities camerising levels of pollution and disease. Many people lost their jobs to the new machinery, whilst working conditions in the factories were grim and pay was low. As the middle classes prospered, social unrest ran through the working classes, and the exploitation of workers led to the growth of tradeunions and protest movements.In this Very Short Introduction, Robert C. Allen analyzes the key features of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, and the spread of industrialization to other countries. He considers the factors that combined to enable industrialization at this time, including Britain's position as a globalcommercial empire, and discusses the changes in technology and business organization, and their impact on different social classes and groups. Introducing the "winners" and the "losers" of the Industrial Revolution, he looks at how the changes were reflected in evolving government policies, andwhat contribution these made to the economic transformation. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Locke : A Very Short Introduction John Locke (1632-1704) one of the greatest English philosophers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, argued in his masterpiece, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, that our knowledge is founded in experience and reaches us principally through our senses; but its messagehas been curiously misunderstood. In this book John Dunn shows how Locke arrived at his theory of knowledge, and how his exposition of the liberal values of toleration and responsible government formed the backbone of enlightened European thought of the eighteenth century.
The Napoleonic Wars: a Very Short Introduction by Mike Rapport The Napoleonic Wars have an important place in the history of Europe, leaving their mark on European and world societies in a variety of ways. In many European countries they provided the stimulus for radical social and political change - particularly in Spain, Germany, and Italy - and arefrequently viewed in these places as the starting point of their modern histories.In this Very Short Introduction, Mike Rapport provides a brief outline of the wars, introducing the tactics, strategies, and weaponry of the time. Presented in three parts, he considers the origins and course of the wars, the ways and means in which it was fought, and the social and political legacyit has left to the world today.
Revolutions : A Very Short Introduction This volume places recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan to Tunisia and Egypt in historical context. It provides a history of revolutions and insurgencies, an introduction to the way social scientists think about the causes and outcomes of revolutions, and an explanation of their significancein historical and political change. Jack A. Goldstone begins with a brief history of revolutions and insurgencies, from the revolutions that brought democracy to Greek city-states and led to the founding of Rome through the major peasant revolts of the Middle Ages in Europe and China, and the Independence revolts in the Americas. Healso touches upon the insurgencies in Latin America (Zapatistas and FARC) and Asia (in Malaysia and the Philippines), whose failure is instructive in understanding why revolts succeed or fail. The book then discusses types of revolutions and their causes; the radical social revolutions in France,Russia, and China; the revolutions for independence in India and Algeria; revolutions against dictators in Mexico, Cuba, and Iran; and the so-called color revolutions in Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Georgia. Goldstone considers some of the key revolutionary leaders of history where they came from, what inspired them, and how they changed their societies. A diverse range of popular groups have carried revolutions: peasants, miners, urban craftsmen, professionals, students, and mothers, all treated here.A chapter on insurgency and counter-insurgency covers Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, Goldstone grapples with the outcomes of revolutions: whether they are associated with the rise of freedom and democracy, devastating ideological dictatorships, or something inconclusive. He examines the historicallegacies of revolutions, in the areas of freedom, economic growth, women's rights, and minority rights. Revolutions have succeeded enough to feed dreams of freedom, but failed often enough to prompt caution.
The Scientific Revolution : A Very Short Introduction The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed such fervent investigations of the natural world that the period has been called the 'Scientific Revolution.' New ideas and discoveries not only redefined what human beings believed, knew, and could do, but also forced them to redefinethemselves with respect to the strange new worlds revealed by ships and scalpels, telescopes and microscopes, experimentation and contemplation. Driven by religious devotion, by practical need, by the promise of fame and profit, or by the simple desire to know, a broad range of thinkers and workers explored and reconceptualized the world around them. Explanatory systems were made, discarded, and remade by some of the best-known names in theentire history of science - Copernicus, Galileo, Newton - and by many others less recognized but no less important. In this Very Short Introduction Lawrence M. Principe explores the exciting developments in the sciences of the stars (astronomy, astrology, and cosmology), the sciences of earth (geography, geology, hydraulics, pneumatics), the sciences of matter and motion (alchemy, chemistry, kinematics, physics),the sciences of life (medicine, anatomy, biology, zoology), and much more. The story is told from the perspective of the historical characters themselves, emphasizing their background, context, reasoning, and motivations, and dispelling well-worn myths about the history of science.
Stuart Britain : A Very Short Introduction First published as part of the best-selling The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, John Morrill's Very Short Introduction to Stuart Britain sets the Revolution into its political, religious, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural contexts. It thus seeks to integrate what most othersurveys pull apart. It gives a graphic account of the effects of a century-long period during which population was growing inexorably and faster than both the food supply and the employment market. It looks at the failed attempts of successive governments to make all those under their authorityobedient members of a unified national church; it looks at how Charles I blundered into a civil war which then took on a terrifying momentum of its own. The result was his trial and execution, the abolition of the monarchy, the house of lords, the bishops, the prayer book and the celebration ofChristmas. As a result everything else that people took for granted came up for challenge, and this book shows how painfully and with what difficulty order and obedience was restored. Vividly illustrated and full of startling detail, this is an ideal introduction to those interested in getting intothe period, and also contains much to challenge and stimulate those who already feel at home in Stuart England.