?Book recommendation - Eng Civil wars?

[charlie64]

Looking over this part of the forums I see that there are lots of good books about the English Civil Wars. I need a recommendation for a particular type. I want to find a book that looks at the politics, religion, culture, and economics that led up to the break. I am not too interested in the glory, the battles, the generals, etc. We had a bit of fighting over here in the 1860s and way too much has been written about the glory.

Is there a good book dealing with the causes of the English Civil War? I don't necessarily need something for the popular audience - I can plod through 800 pages of dense scholarship if I can learn something.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Charlie

[Megan Roberts]

I don't know if you have looked at the National Archives site but they have a really good set of guidance notes about all sorts of things:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-subject/default.htm

They also have a bookshop which might have something that would meet your needs:
http://bookshop.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Finally the two second overview of the cause of the English Civil war was the question of whether or not the King could do as he wished irrespective of what Parliament wanted. The basic cause of all wars - who is the most powerful!

[Peter Goodey]

I want to find a book that looks at the politics, religion, culture, and economics that led up to the break.

The historian Christopher Hill dealt with economics, politics and religion of the period in several books. In particular, I'd recommend The Century of Revolution.

The CIA may note your name down as a dangerous red :biggrin:

[thewideeyedowl]

Hi again, Charlie

The Open Library has a project to assign one web page to every book published. You will find that some titles are available free as ebooks - to read online, download as a .pdf etc etc. A quickie search there threw up this item from 1908:

"Catalogue of the pamphlets, books, newspapers, and manuscripts relating to the civil war, the commonwealth, and restoration: collected by George Thomason, 1640-1661..... by British Museum. Dept. of Printed Books. Thomason Collection.
9 editions (1 ebook) - first published in 1908"

It might just be list after list, but as it was compiled at the time it could provide some insight. Plus - it's free! Could possibly be worth a look?

Owl

[thewideeyedowl]

Sorry - forgot the weblink: https://openlibrary.org/ and then do a search.

Only just realised - many apologies. Haven't got the time to go back and find the link to the relevant page. You can have fun doing that!

Owl