This volume covers 1603-1660, the years of the Stuart kings, the English Civil War and the rise and fall of the republic.

Oliver Cromwell is one of the most puzzling and controversial figures in English history. In this excellent introduction, Barry Coward uses Cromwell's own words and actions to analyse the life of Oliver Cromwell as a political figure and look at the historical problems associated with his exercise of power.

Oliver Cromwell is one of the most puzzling and controversial figures in English history. In this excellent introduction, Barry Coward uses Cromwell's own words and actions to analyse the life of Oliver Cromwell as a political figure and look at the historical problems associated with his exercise of power.

Barry Coward has revised his wide-ranging text which outlines the major social changes that occurred in England in the two hundred years after the Reformation. He examines the religious and intellectual changes resulting from revolutionary pressures, as well as considering the impact of rapid inflation and population expansion in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Overall he stresses that social change combined with social continuity to produce a distinctive early modern English society.