John Morrill

It does what it says on the tin, though for "Stuart Britain", read the Civil War. It did help me get a handle on the basics of the politics at the time (Irish secondary school history mostly deals with this period from the perspective of "That Cromwell, what a bastard", which I can't necessarily disagree with), but less so when it came to the people who inhabited Stuart Britain. For something published in 2000, this still hews very much to the Great Man school of history—emphasis on the show more male, for women show up hardly at all. show less

There are few figures in English history as controversial as Oliver Cromwell. Born a member of the lower English gentry, he embraced Puritanism as a young man and won election to the “Long Parliament” in 1640. During the English Civil War he distinguished himself in military commands, and steadily rose to become second-in-command of the Parliamentary forces by the end of the conflict. Successful campaigns in Scotland and Ireland propelled him to the leadership of the English Republic. show more Though he refused the crown, he governed as Lord Protector until his death in 1658 created a vacuum that led to the restoration of the Stuart dynasty two years later.

Though Cromwell has been the subject of numerous biographies, John Morrill’s book offers a concise assessment of Cromwell’s life and legacy. Taken from the entry Morrill wrote on Cromwell for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, it offers a good introduction to Cromwell’s life by a leading scholar of the period. His section on Cromwell’s ever-evolving reputation is particularly enlightening, offering his learned assessment of the many works on the Lord Protector. These qualities make this book a good starting point for anyone curious about Cromwell, as well as an excellent guide for further study of the man and his times. show less

Not quite what it says on the tin. It only covers the Stuarts down to the Glorious Revolution in 1688. A good mixture of a reign by reign description of what happened and chapters following economic, social, artistic, and religious themes.

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 other surveys 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 show more looks at the failed attempts of successive governments to make all those under their authority obedient 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 of Christmas. 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.

John Morrill has been Professor of British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge since 1998. He has also been a Fellow since 1975 and Vice master since 1994 of Selwyn College, Cambridge. His publications include The Nature of the English Revolution (1994), The British Problem 1534-1707 (1996), The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain (1996), and Revolt in the Provinces (1998). He is also General Editor of The History of Britain, Ireland and the British Overseas on CD-ROM. show less