'[Literature, Gender and Politics During the English Civil War] is a truly exceptional study. When Purkiss writes that 'the wager of this book has been that it is entirely possible that the Civil War - the war of the battlefields, but also of the writings, of politics and ideas - was, among other things, an opportunity for the creation and discharge of tensions implicit in early modern masculinity, a masculinity [both] socially and psychically constructed' … she is simply hedging her bets. The wager has already paid off. Purkiss has written an altogether convincing and historically attentive account of masculine identity in mid-century England. Through careful and meticulous methodological rigor, she has also provided her readers with the theoretical apparatus to carry out similar research in other historical sites and venues.' History of Intellectual Culture

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Dismembering and remembering: the English Civil War and male identity; 2. Republican politics; 3. Opening the king's cabinet; 4. Charles I; 5. Cromwell; 6. Monsters and men; 7. Milton and monsters; 8. Matthew Hopkins and the panic about witches; Conclusion; Notes; Index.

'[Literature, Gender and Politics During the English Civil War] is a truly exceptional study. When Purkiss writes that 'the wager of this book has been that it is entirely possible that the Civil War - the war of the battlefields, but also of the writings, of politics and ideas - was, among other things, an opportunity for the creation and discharge of tensions implicit in early modern masculinity, a masculinity [both] socially and psychically constructed' … she is simply hedging her bets. The wager has already paid off. Purkiss has written an altogether convincing and historically attentive account of masculine identity in mid-century England. Through careful and meticulous methodological rigor, she has also provided her readers with the theoretical apparatus to carry out similar research in other historical sites and venues.' History of Intellectual Culture

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Dismembering and remembering: the English Civil War and male identity; 2. Republican politics; 3. Opening the king's cabinet; 4. Charles I; 5. Cromwell; 6. Monsters and men; 7. Milton and monsters; 8. Matthew Hopkins and the panic about witches; Conclusion; Notes; Index.

'[Literature, Gender and Politics During the English Civil War] is a truly exceptional study. When Purkiss writes that 'the wager of this book has been that it is entirely possible that the Civil War - the war of the battlefields, but also of the writings, of politics and ideas - was, among other things, an opportunity for the creation and discharge of tensions implicit in early modern masculinity, a masculinity [both] socially and psychically constructed' … she is simply hedging her bets. The wager has already paid off. Purkiss has written an altogether convincing and historically attentive account of masculine identity in mid-century England. Through careful and meticulous methodological rigor, she has also provided her readers with the theoretical apparatus to carry out similar research in other historical sites and venues.' History of Intellectual Culture

• Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Dismembering and remembering: the English Civil War and male identity; 2. Republican politics; 3. Opening the king's cabinet; 4. Charles I; 5. Cromwell; 6. Monsters and men; 7. Milton and monsters; 8. Matthew Hopkins and the panic about witches; Conclusion; Notes; Index.