Description: Graham Seel explores the period of turmoil in British history from 1637 and the latter part of the reign of Charles I to the restoration with Charles II in 1660. He discusses the political and religious crises as well as the key personalities.
Review Quotes: "The book under review by John Walter takes issue with the conventional view of these riots and provides a higly sophisticated, deeply researched and subtle alternative approach. The author provides a four-tiered analysis of his subject and in doing so makes a major contribution to our understanding of the origins and nature of the English Civil War...Dr. Walter then provides a penetrating analysis of the crowds themselves, focusing first on the fact that included among the victims in 1642 were a number of clergymen notably in Colchester and some other towns, who had been presented to their livings by gentry sympathetic to the Laudian church.."