The Debate on the English Revolution - (Issues in Historiography) 3rd Edition by R Richardson (Paperback)

About the Book

Analyses the different ways in which historians over the last three centuries have tried to explain the causes, course and consequences of the English Revolution

Book Synopsis

The debate on the English Revolution is firmly established as an essential guide to the literature in its field and appears here in a much revised third edition. Three new chapters are included on twentieth-century historians' treatments of social complexities, politics, political culture and revisionism, and on the Revolution's unstoppable reverberations. All the other chapters have been amended and recast to take account of recent publications. The book provides a searching re-examination of why the English Revolution remains such a provocatively controversial subject and analyses the different ways in which historians over the last three centuries have tried to explain its causes, course and consequences. Claredon, Hume, Macaulay, Gardiner, Tawney, Hill, and the present-day revisionists are given extended treatment, while discussion of the work of numerous other historians is integrated into a coherent, informative readable survey.

From the Back Cover

The debate on the English Revolution is firmly established as an essential guide to the literature in its field and appears here in a much revised third edition. Three new chapters are included on twentieth-century historians' treatments of social complexities, politics, political culture and revisionism, and on the Revolution's unstoppable reverberations. All the other chapters have been amended and recast to take account of recent publications.

The book provides a searching re-examination of why the English Revolution remains such a provocatively controversial subject and analyses the different ways in which historians over the last three centuries have tried to explain its causes, course and consequences. Claredon, Hume, Macaulay, Gardiner, Tawney, Hill, and the present-day revisionists are given extended treatment, while discussion of the work of numerous other historians is integrated into a coherent, informative readable survey.

'We are all at heart either Royalists or Roundheads', one of today's leading specialists in the field has observed. The debate on the English Revolution reveals historians variously at work in their capacities as explorers, advocates, prosecutors, judges and demolition experts.

Review Quotes

" Dr. Richardson succeeds admirably in his attempt both to explain why the English Revolution remains so controversial a subject and to examine how and why historians have approached the subject over the past centuries." -- "Times Educational Supplement"
" ... an essential 'vademecum' for aficonadoes of the civil wars and interregnum, a motley crew, to be sure, but one united in fascination for those hurling times." -- "Literature and History"


"Dr. Richardson succeeds admirably in his attempt both to explain why the English Revolution remains so controversial a subject and to examine how and why historians have approached the subject over the past centuries." --"Times Educational Supplement"
"... an essential 'vademecum' for aficonadoes of the civil wars and interregnum, a motley crew, to be sure, but one united in fascination for those hurling times." --"Literature and History"


0;Dr. Richardson succeeds admirably in his attempt both to explain why the English Revolution remains so controversial a subject and to examine how and why historians have approached the subject over the past centuries.1; 2;"Times Educational Supplement"
0;... an essential 'vademecum' for aficonadoes of the civil wars and interregnum, a motley crew, to be sure, but one united in fascination for those hurling times.1; 2;"Literature and History"

About the Author

R. C. Richardson is Head of History at King Alfred's University College, Winchester. His most recent publications are Images of Oliver Cromwell (1993) and The English Civil War: Local Aspects (1997)