Ronald Hutton – författare

Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. Because of this, historian Ronald Hutton shows, succeeding British generations have been free to reimagine, reinterpret, and reinvent the Druids. Hutton’s captivating book is the first to encompass two thousand years of Druid history and to explore the evolution of English, Scottish, and Welsh attitudes toward the forever ambiguous figures of the ancient Celtic world.Druids have been remembered at different times as patriots, scientists, philosophers, or priests. Sometimes portrayed as corrupt, bloodthirsty, or ignorant, they were also seen as fomenters of rebellion. Hutton charts how the Druids have been written in and out of history, archaeology, and the public consciousness for some 500 years, with particular focus on the romantic period, when Druids completely dominated notions of British prehistory. Sparkling with legends and images, filled with new perspectives on ancient and modern times, this book is a fascinating cultural study of Druids as catalysts in British history.

In "Stations of the Sun" and "The Triumph of the Moon", Ronald Hutton established himself as a leading authority on the historian of Paganism. His wealth of unusual knowledge, complemented by a deep and sympathetic understanding of past and present beliefs that are often dismissed as strange or marginal, and an ability to write lucidly and wittily, gives his work a unique flavour. The essays which make up "Witches, Druids and King Arthur" cover elegantly and entertainingly a wide range of beliefs, myths and practices.

The first volume in a pioneering account of Oliver Cromwell—providing a major new interpretation of one of the greatest figures in history“Hutton’s book is intelligent, well documented, and stylish.”—Keith Thomas, New York Review of BooksOliver Cromwell (1599–1658)—the only English commoner to become the overall head of state—is one of the great figures of history, but his character was very complex. He was at once courageous and devout, devious and self-serving. As a parliamentarian, he was devoted to his cause; as a soldier, he was ruthless. Cromwell’s speeches and writings surpass in quantity those of any other ruler of England before Victoria and, for those seeking to understand him, he has usually been taken at his word.In this remarkable new work, Ronald Hutton untangles the facts from the fiction. Cromwell, pursuing his devotion to God and cementing his Puritan support base, quickly transformed from obscure provincial to military victor. At the end of the first English Civil War, he was poised to take power. Hutton reveals a man who was both genuine in his faith and deliberate in his dishonesty—and uncovers the inner workings of the man who has puzzled biographers for centuries.

The second volume in an acclaimed biography of Oliver Cromwell, from the capture of Charles I to the expulsion of the Long Parliament  In 1647, the Parliamentarians were divided. They had won the first civil war and the king was in custody, but disagreements over the way forward had led to a stalemate. As the leader of one party, Oliver Cromwell found himself again at the centre of events.  In the second volume of his pioneering biography, Ronald Hutton traces Cromwell’s career from 1647 through to his seizure of supreme power. These decisive years saw the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth of England, as well as notorious and savage campaigns in Ireland and Scotland. Cromwell’s political and military leadership were well honed after years of practice, but this was also the period of his greatest ruthlessness and brutality.  This groundbreaking account reveals a different kind of Cromwell, showing how he navigated the many forces ranged against him—and rose to the pinnacle of his power.

Britain's pagan past, with its mysterious monuments, atmospheric sites, enigmatic artifacts, bloodthirsty legends, and cryptic inscriptions, is both enthralling and perplexing to a resident of the twenty-first century. In this ambitious and thoroughly up-to-date book, Ronald Hutton reveals the long development, rapid suppression, and enduring cultural significance of paganism, from the Paleolithic era to the coming of Christianity. He draws on an array of recently discovered evidence and shows how new findings have radically transformed understandings of belief and ritual in Britain before the arrival of organized religion.  Setting forth a chronological narrative, along the way Hutton makes side visits to explore specific locations of ancient pagan activity. He includes the well-known sacred sites—Stonehenge, Avebury, Seahenge, Maiden Castle, Anglesey—as well as more obscure locations across the mainland and coastal islands. In tireless pursuit of the elusive “why” of pagan behavior, Hutton astonishes with the breadth of his understanding of Britain’s deep past and inspires with the originality of his insights.

'a brilliant history' The Sunday Times 'makes for riveting reading' The IndependentModern pagan witchcraft is arguably the only fully-formed religion England has given the world, and has now spread across four continents.This second edition of The Triumph of the Moon extensively revises the first full-scale scholarly study of modern pagan witchcraft. Ronald Hutton examines the nature and development of this religion, and offers a history of attitudes to witchcraft, paganism and magic in British society since 1800. Its pages reveal village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and members of rural secret societies. We also find some of the leading figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the public world since 1950. Thriller writers like Dennis Wheatley, and films and television programmes, get similar coverage, as does tabloid journalism. The material is by its nature often sensational, and care is taken throughout to distinguish fact from fantasy, in a manner not previously applied to most of the stories involved. Meticulously researched, The Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into an aspect of modern cultural history which has attracted sensational publicity but has hitherto been little understood. This edition incorporates new research carried out by the author as well as research by others who have been inspired by this book over the twenty years since its first publication.

Comprehensive and engaging, this colourful study covers the whole sweep of ritual history from the earliest written records to the present day. From May Day revels and Midsummer fires, to Harvest Home and Hallowe'en, to the twelve days of Christmas, Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain. He challenges many common assumptions about the customs of the past, and debunks many myths surrounding festivals of the present, to illuminate the history of the calendar year we live by today.

Why have societies all across the world feared witchcraft? This book delves deeply into its context, beliefs, and origins in Europe’s history"Traces the idea of witches far beyond the Salem witch trials to beliefs and attitudes about witches around the world throughout history.”—Los Angeles TimesThe witch came to prominence—and often a painful death—in early modern Europe, yet her origins are much more geographically diverse and historically deep. In this landmark book, Ronald Hutton traces witchcraft from the ancient world to the early-modern stake.  This book sets the notorious European witch trials in the widest and deepest possible perspective and traces the major historiographical developments of witchcraft. Hutton, a renowned expert on ancient, medieval, and modern paganism and witchcraft beliefs, combines Anglo-American and continental scholarly approaches to examine attitudes on witchcraft and the treatment of suspected witches across the world, including in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Australia, and North and South America, and from ancient pagan times to current interpretations. His fresh anthropological and ethnographical approach focuses on cultural inheritance and change while considering shamanism, folk religion, the range of witch trials, and how the fear of witchcraft might be eradicated.

Ronald Hutton is known for his colourful and provocative writings on original subjects. This work is no exception: for the first full-scale scholarly study of the only religion England has ever given the world; that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. Hutton examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a microhistory of attitudes to paganism, witchcraft, and magic in British society since 1800. Its pages reveal village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and members of rural secret societies. We also find some of the leading of figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W.B. Yeats, D.H. Lawrence, and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the world since 1950. Densely researched, Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into a hitherto little-known aspect of modern social history.

The Rise and Fall of Merry Englandexplores the religious and secular rituals which marked the passage of the year in late medieval and early modern England, and tells the story of how they altered over time in response to political, religious, and social changes. Ronald Hutton examines a number of important and controversial issues, such as the character and pace of the English Reformation, the nature of the early Stuart `Reformation of Manners', the context of writers like Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick, the origins of the science of folklore, the relevance of cultural divisions to the English Civil War, the impact of the English Revolution, and the viability of economic explanations for social change.Never before has such a comprehensive study of the subject been undertaken, and it has been made possible by using categories of source material, notably local financial records, in a quantity never attempted hitherto. This is highly readable and entertaining book which, in both research and interpretation, breaks several frontiers.

The years 1658-1667 form one of the most vital and eventful periods in English history, witnessing the Plague, the Great Fire of London, the naval wars against the Dutch, and, above all, the transformation of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth into the Restoration monarchy of Charles II.Ronald Hutton's detailed study of the period returns to nearly all the extant manuscript sources and reworks every issue afresh. The result is an absorbing and perceptive account of national experience as government policy changed, influenced by the interaction of central concerns, local perspectives, and the various social, political, and religious groups.

From the twelve days of Christmas to the Spring traditions of Valentine, Shrovetide, and Easter eggs, through May Day revels and Midsummer fires, and on to the waning of the year, Harvest Home, and Hallowe'en; Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain. His comprehensive study covers all the British Isles and the whole sweep of history from the earliest written records to the present day. Great and lesser, ancient and modern, Christian and pagan, all rituals are treated with the same attention. The result is a colourful and absorbing account in which Ronald Hutton illuminates the history of the calendar we live by, and challenges many commonly held assumptions about the customs of the past and the festivals of the present. The Stations of the Sun is the first complete scholarly work to cover the full span of British rituals, challenging the work of specialists from the late Victorian period onwards, reworking our picture of the field thoroughly, and raising issues for historians of every period.

Ronald Hutton is known for his colourful, provocative, and always exhaustively researched, studies on original subjects. This work is no exception: the first full-scale scholarly study of the only religion England has ever given the world, that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. Hutton examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a microhistory of attitudes to paganism, witchcraft, and magic in British society since 1800. Village cunning folk and Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons and members of rural secret societies, all appear in the pages of this book. Also included are some of the leading figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W B Yeats, D H Lawrence, and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the world since 1950.

This is the first scholarly biography of the king who is remembered by the English with more popular affection than almost any other. Covering his entire life, it takes in his colourful years as a prince and as an exiled monarch during the Civil War and Interregnum, in addition to his later career as effective ruler of three kingdoms. A unique feature of Ronald Hutton's authoritative study is the attention given to Charles's reign over Scotland and Ireland, as well as England, giving us the first united history of the British Isles in this period.The work is based throughout on all the known surviving sources, some of which have never been used before. This lively and comprehensive biography fills an important gap in Stuart historiography, and will be indispensable to anyone interested in the period.

This is the second, and extensively revised, edition of the first full-scale scholarly study of what is arguably the only fully-formed religion that England has ever given the world: that of modern pagan witchcraft, which has now spread from English shores across four continents. Ronald Hutton examines the nature of that religion and its development, and offers a history of attitudes to witchcraft, paganism and magic in British society since 1800. Its pages reveal village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and members of rural secret societies. We also find some of the leading figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the public world since 1950. Thriller writers like Dennis Wheatley, and films and television programmes, get similar coverage, as does tabloid journalism. The material is by its very nature often sensational, and care is taken throughout to distinguish fact from fantasy, in a manner not hitherto applied to most of the stories involved. Consistently densely researched, Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into an aspect of modern cultural history which has attracted sensational publicity but has hitherto been little understood. This edition incorporates all of the new research carried out into the subject by the author, and by others who have often been inspired by this book, during the twenty years since it was first published.

A concise history of the goddess-like figures who evade both Christian and pagan traditions, from the medieval period to the present day  In this riveting account, renowned scholar Ronald Hutton explores the history of deity-like figures in Christian Europe. Drawing on anthropology, archaeology, literature, and history, Hutton shows how hags, witches, the Fairy Queen, and the Green Man all came to be, and how they changed over the centuries.  Looking closely at four main figures—Mother Earth, the Fairy Queen, the Mistress of the Night, and the Old Woman of Gaelic tradition—Hutton challenges decades of debate around the female figures who have long been thought versions of pre-Christian goddesses. He makes the compelling case that these goddess figures found in the European imagination did not descend from the pre-Christian ancient world, yet have nothing Christian about them. It was in fact nineteenth-century scholars who attempted to establish the narrative of pagan survival that persists today.

The second volume in an acclaimed biography of Oliver Cromwell, from the capture of Charles I to the expulsion of the Long Parliament  In 1647, the Parliamentarians were divided. They had won the first civil war and the king was in custody, but disagreements over the way forward had led to a stalemate. As the leader of one party, Oliver Cromwell found himself again at the centre of events.  In the second volume of his pioneering biography, Ronald Hutton traces Cromwell’s career from 1647 through to his seizure of supreme power. These decisive years saw the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth of England, as well as notorious and savage campaigns in Ireland and Scotland. Cromwell’s political and military leadership were well honed after years of practice, but this was also the period of his greatest ruthlessness and brutality.  This groundbreaking account reveals a different kind of Cromwell, showing how he navigated the many forces ranged against him—and rose to the pinnacle of his power.

A groundbreaking history of the ancient goddesses of love and warThe figure of a goddess who represents both love and war can be found in cultures across the ancient world. These societies were all polytheistic, and all worshipped such deities as Venus, Freya, and the Morrigan. What was it about this model of divine femininity that ancient people in Europe and the Near East found so attractive?In this vivid account, Ronald Hutton traces the history of eight key goddesses in ancient societies. Looking at the Sumerian Inanna, ancient Greek Aphrodite, and Egyptian Hathor, amongst others, Hutton compares the characters of these female deities and examines how and why such a figure reoccurred so often. Ranging from Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine to western Europe, this fascinating story provides a deeper understanding of two of the most powerful and intractable human impulses: love and war.

The Interregnum is one of the most colourful and celebrated episodes in the history of the British Isles. Ronald Hutton's book provides a concise synthesis of recent research into this area - now brought up-to-date to include the research of the 1990s. Hutton analyses the diplomatic, military, political, religious and intellectual developments of the period, and in so doing, tries to determine the real significance of the Interregnum. He also looks at the increasingly studied figure of Cromwell, and how recent research has brought both the man and his government to life.

The English Civil War remains the most prolonged and traumatic example of internal violence in the history of the state. The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 shows the build up to the outbreak of the war, detailing how the war was fought, and how, ultimately, it was won and lost.In his new introduction to this second edition, Ronald Hutton places his vivid account of the Royalist war effort into modern historical context, bringing the reader up-to-date with recent developments in the study of the English civil war. He analyses the influences which affected his own interpretation of events, ensuring that The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 remains the most informative and compelling account of the Royalist experience in the English civil war.

The English Civil War remains the most prolonged and traumatic example of internal violence in the history of the state. The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 shows the build up to the outbreak of the war, detailing how the war was fought, and how, ultimately, it was won and lost.In his new introduction to this second edition, Ronald Hutton places his vivid account of the Royalist war effort into modern historical context, bringing the reader up-to-date with recent developments in the study of the English civil war. He analyses the influences which affected his own interpretation of events, ensuring that The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 remains the most informative and compelling account of the Royalist experience in the English civil war.

In this reissue of the second edition of The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 Ronald Hutton places his vivid account of the Royalist War effort in modern historical context, bringing the reader up to date with recent developments in the study of the English Civil War. He analyzes the influences which affected his own interpretation of events, ensuring that The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 remains the most informative and compelling account of the Royalist experience in the English Civil War.

This is the first survey of religious beliefs in the British Isles from the Old Stone Age to the coming of Christianity, one of the least familiar periods in Britain's history. Ronald Hutton draws upon a wealth of new data, much of it archaeological, that has transformed interpretation over the past decade. Giving more or less equal weight to all periods, from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages, he examines a fascinating range of evidence for Celtic and Romano-British paganism, from burial sites, cairns, megaliths and causeways, to carvings, figurines, jewellery, weapons, votive objects, literary texts and folklore.

This volume investigates the physical evidence for magic in medieval and modern Britain, including ritual mark, concealed objects, amulets, and magical equipment.

In this reissue of the second edition of The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 Ronald Hutton places his vivid account of the Royalist War effort in modern historical context, bringing the reader up to date with recent developments in the study of the English Civil War. He analyzes the influences which affected his own interpretation of events, ensuring that The Royalist War Effort, 1642-1646 remains the most informative and compelling account of the Royalist experience in the English Civil War.

This volume investigates the physical evidence for magic in medieval and modern Britain, including ritual mark, concealed objects, amulets, and magical equipment.

In this essential introduction to the writing of Stuart history, Ronald Hutton provides a clear and authoritative guide to both the current condition of the discipline and its historiography. Hutton helps students to understand some of the key recent debates and shows them how to set their reading in context. He also provides a new sense of why historians of the Stuart period, both collectively and individually, perceive the past in particular ways, and shows how these perceptions alter over time.

Praise for the author::'For anyone researching the subject, this is the book you've been waiting for.'Washington PostFrom the death of Richard III on Bosworth Field in 1485 to the execution of Charles I after the Civil Wars of 1642-48, England was transformed by two dynasties.First, the Tudors, who had won the crown on the battlefield, changed both the nature of kingship and the nation itself. England became Protestant and began to establish itself as a trading power; facing down seemingly impossible odds, it defeated its enemies on land and sea. But after a century, Elizabeth I died with no heir and the crown was passed to the Stuarts, who sought to remould the kingdom in their own image.Leading authority on the history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Ronald Hutton brilliantly recreates the political landscape of this early modern period and shows how the modern nation was forged in these febrile, transformative years. Combining skilful pen portraits of the leading figures of the day with descriptions of its culture, economics and vivid accounts of everyday life, Hutton provides telling insights into this critical period on Britain's national history.This the second book in the landmark four-volume Brief History of Britain which brings together leading historians to tell Britain's story, from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the present day. Combining the latest research with accessible and entertaining story-telling, the series is the ideal introduction for students and general readers.