Product Description

The late seventeenth century was a period of extraordinary turbulence and political violence in Britain, the like of which has never been seen since. Beginning with the Restoration of the monarchy after the Civil War, this book traces the fate of the monarchy from Charles II's triumphant accession in 1660 to the growing discontent of the 1680s. Harris looks beyond the popular image of Restoration England revelling in its freedom from the austerity of Puritan rule under a merry monarch and reconstructs the human tragedy of Restoration politics where people were brutalised, hounded and exploited by a regime that was desperately insecure after two decade of civil war and republican rule.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31295 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

About the Author
Tim Harris is Professor of History at Brown University. His previous books include London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II and The Politics of the Excluded.

Customer Reviews

An excellent piece of scholarship
This is a much-needed reassessment of politics under the later Stuarts which manages both to include the (usually forgotten) kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland and - perhaps most significantly - to embrace the role of popular politics in the Glorious Revolution.

In essence this work involves a controversial personal statement by Harris who clearly has his own vision of what 1680s politics was all about - affecting ALL the Stuart kingdoms, involving ALL of the subjects of those realms and (most controversially) including a genuine and successful 'Revolution'. Unlike other weaker historians (e.g. David Starkey), however, Harris takes great pains in his introduction to explain and justify his points as well as recognising that other views of the period exist. This means that while one does not always agree with his views (such as over the importance of 1688 compared to 1649) there can be no doubting the rigour and genuine quality of his scholarship.

In particular, in his pleasingly authoritative and engaging style Harris has succeeded in presenting Charles II in a way that followers of TV 'history' and period dramas will find strange - a largely ineffective monarch who was incapable of understanding the bitter and savage nature of Restoration politics and one who was completely out of touch with the majority of the peoples who inhabited his kingdoms. The myth of the 'Merrie Monarch' is thus well and truly dismantled!

This work is a valuable contribution to the study of politics under the later Stuarts and deserves a wide audience. I for one cannot wait for the second volume (out next year)!

Brilliant
For some one who is not an academic but a passing observer I found this book an essential read par excellence. It is informative, at times philosophical but most interesting it argues history as well as it reports it.
Combining the three Kingdoms and Charles's II cunning skill in overcoming the political as well as the social and religious obstacles is well reported; bringing to life the true forces working together to ensure his eventual achievment of absolutism.