Title: The Seventeenth Century

Author: Jenny Wormald

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Price: £55.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: English Civil War

Category: 17th Century History

The Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1603 dramatically changed the nature and level of interaction between the constituent parts of the British Isles, and over the course of the century that followed the seismic shocks of constitutional revolutions and civil wars were felt in each one of three very different kingdoms that had been forced together under one king. The chapters in this volume, each written by a leading scholar of the period, analyse in turn the response to the Union of 1603, the religious controversies under the early Stuarts, the Civil War, Commonwealth, and Restoration periods, and the social and economic context within which these developments took place. The final chapter then looks at the vibrant cultural interaction between the kingdoms of the British Isles in the seventeenth century, which stands in sharp contrast to the political, religious, and social doubts and fears that permeated the period.Throughout, the book maintains a careful balance, focusing on the ways in which the various tensions within each individual kingdom came together, whilst at the same time looking beyond the confines of any one of the kingdoms and recognizing their interlinking 'British' impact.

Title: War in England 1642-1649

Author: Barbara Donagan

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Price: £55.00

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: English Civil War

Category: 17th Century History

A fresh approach to the English civil war, War in England 1642-1649 focuses on answering a misleadingly simple question: what kind of war was it to live through? Eschewing descriptions of specific battles or analyses of political and religious developments, Barbara Donagan examines the 'texture' of war, addressing questions such as: what did Englishmen and women believe about war and know about its practice before 1642? What were the conditions in which a soldier fought - for example, how efficient was his musket (not very), and how did he know where he was going (much depended on the reliability of scouts and spies)? What were the rules that were supposed to govern conduct in war, and how were they enforced (by a combination of professional peer pressure and severe but discretionary army discipline and courts martial)? What were the officers and men of the armies like, and how well did they fight? The book deals even-handedly with royalists and parliamentarians, examining how much they had in common, as well as discussing the points on which they differed.

Title: The Digger Movement

Author: Lewis H. Berens

Publisher: Merlin Press

Price: £14.95

Bookshop: Amazon

Spartacus Website: Gerrard Winstanley

Category: 17th Century History

In April 1649 two 'Diggers', Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard, appeared in Whitehall before the leader of the army, Lord Fairfax, to declare that deliverance was at hand. "God is bringing his people out of slavery. Freedom is restored." This book surveys radical thinking arising from the Reformation, and writings that pressed for the rights to land. It includes important selected texts: Digger Manifestoes; The Appeal to the House of Commons; The Watchword to the City of London; and Winstanley's 'Utopia'. Lewis H. Berens was a Quaker whose study of Winstanley was first published in 1906.

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