Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

When I was asked to edit this book, I was very happy to accept because it seemed to me that the time was ripe for a group of experts in various fields of seventeenth-and early eighteenth-century British history to stand back and synthesize the current state of scholarship in their areas of expertise. During the last thirty years of the twentieth century the flow of new and conflicting interpretations of many aspects of British history during the Stuart age has been rapid. As new books and articles have appeared in bookshops, libraries and historical journals, for those deeply involved in the study of this period the high level of excitement and interest that has always surrounded it has been sustained and perhaps even increased. But for scholars, students and general readers who have not had the time to keep abreast of this new work, the result has been to make the period difficult to get to grips with. Indeed some hard-pressed schoolteachers have told me that they are thinking of abandoning teaching courses on this period in favour of ‘easier’ periods about which historical interpretations have been less frequently and bitterly contested. This is primarily why I accepted the invitation to edit a book that would both reflect the intrinsic excitement and importance of the Stuart age and help to dispel the confusion caused by the kaleidoscopic and changing nature of historical interpretations ... log in or subscribe to read full text