This famous survey has been updated to incorporate the new perspectives of the last twelve years. The study opens with one Revolution, the Reformation, and closes with another - the Civil War of the mid-17th century and the abolition of the monarchy. Alan Smith explores the dramatic changes during this period when the country was forged into a 'nation state." Its centrepiece however, remains the extraordinary achievements of the Elizabethan and Jacobean age, and these glories are given full treatment in this masterly account.