Documents and Debates – serie

AcknowledgementsGeneral Editor's PrefaceIntroductionThe Standard of living DebateWere the Working Classes Revolutionary?Trade UnionsLaissez-Faire and State Intervention: The EconomyLaissez-Faire and State Intervention: Social ManagementEducationAgriculture 1760-1900Railways A New Age?Depression and Decline? The British Economy 1870-1900The New Jerusalem? The Impact of Industrialisation.

Politics, Religion and Society in Revolutionary England 1640-1660 goes beneath the surface of English society in the turbulent years of civil war and interregnum. The authors draw upon a fascinating array of contemporary writings to provide revealing insights into the motivation of those who shaped English history in these crucial years. All the important legislation is included, but also details from personal memoirs, letters and diaries, not to mention the work of radical pamphleteers in the 1640's and 1650's. The authors address the issues which remain unresolved today - the resort to arms and the objectives of the protoganists; the divisions within parliamentary factions and in the army, the emergence of revolutionary religious and political ideas, the trial and execution of Charles I, the consolidation of a new system of government in the Commonwealth and the subsequent establishment of Cromwell's Protectorate, relations between England and Europe are this period, and the demise of the republican experiment with the restoration of monarchy after Cromwell's death. Specimen questions on each set of documents make this volume particulary useful for students of this period, but in reality the authors have produced a work which will stimulate specialist and non-specialist readers alike. This book will cause renewed reflection on the nature of the historical events of the English Revolution.

The extended plan of the series is designed in response to the changing trends in history examinations at 18 plus, which now demand the study of documentary sources and the testing of historical skills.Each volume, similar in format to the earlier books in the series, concentrates on a particular topic within a narrower time span. A general introduction to the period in question is followed by eight sections dealing with a major theme. Each section consists of an introduction, a series of documents to illustrate the theme (drawn mainly from primary sources) and sets of questions following groups of documents. The student is thus introduced to a wider range of sources than that to be found in the standard textbook.