What were the causes of the English Civil War? In recent years, traditional explanations involving the struggle for sovereignty and the bourgeois revolution have been increasingly questioned. Conrad Russell's new analysis brings into focus fundamental religious and constitutional issues of vital importance to contemporaries, but until now neglected by historians. Basing his study on extensive research among both printed and unpublished
sources, Professor Russell highlights the constitutional problems of multiple kingdoms within Britain; the religious problem of competing theologies within and outside a state church; and the economic
problem of the inadequacy of royal revenue to meet the needs of the monarchy. In order to understand the events of the 1640s, he traces the story of the church and state back over the previous century. This is the fullest account yet available of the origins of one of the most significant events in British history. It will be essential reading for all students of the seventeenth century. Contents: The Corpus Delicti 1637-1642; The problem of Multiple Kingdoms c.
1580-1630; The Church, Religion, and Politics: The Problem of the Definite Article; The Church of England 1559-1625: A Church Designed by a Committee?; Religious Unity in Three Kingdoms and in One 1630-1642;
The Rule of Law: Whose Slogan?; The Poverty of the Crown and the Weakness of the King; The Man Charles Stuart; Conclusion; Appendix.
Industry Reviews
`The best work to have appeared on the subject in the last century'
Dr J S A Adamson, Peterhouse, Cambridge
`Splendid, literate and original treatment.'
M Zell, Senior Lecturer, Thames Polytechnic
`This is an excellent book which raises fundamental questions for an understanding of the outbreak of the civil war. All students will be required to read all or significant parts of it'
Dr D M Dean, Goldsmiths' College, University of London
`This is a clever, witty book, dexterously marshalling a mass of detailed information.'
Christopher Hill, The Spectator
`This book is the most radical reintepretation of the causes of the Civil War since S. R. Gardiner published his classic account over a century ago. ... This succinct and elegantly wirtten book is an intellectual tour de force. It is likely to set the terms of the debate on the causes of the English Civil War for many years to come.'
John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph
`This is a brilliant and stimulating book ....'
C. H. D. Coweman, Lecturer, University College London
`Excellent for subject - lucid, novel, wide-ranging would be one of main texts for a special subject.'
Dr Ronald Hutton, Reader, University of Bristol
`The best history book of the year ...'
Philip Howard, The Times Saturday Review
`This is an excellent book which will become a standard text on the period.'
Dr R. C. Richardson, Head of the History Department, King Alfred's College, Winchester
`Fundamental reappraisal of the origins of the ware based on deep scholarship and long pondering: full of brilliant insights'
Professor A J Fletcher, Department of History, Durham University
`...a tour de force of accessible scholarship. It is difficult to exaggerate how far Russell has recast our account of these events. Russell combines powers of narrative and analysis, the broad sweep with the narrow focus, theological abstractions with daily manoeuvre. Russell's vision of the civil war will henceforth be our ruling orthodoxy. His is a remarkable achievement.'
Jonathan Clark, The Times
`Excellent book by a first-rate historian.'
Professor H. T. Dickinson, Department of History, Edinburgh University
`The Causes of the English Civil War is a remarkable book. Tightly and powerfully argued, compellingly lucid, it sustains its argumentative edge through every sentence.'
Blair Worden, London Review of Books
`Causes of the English Civil Warprovides an invaluable, and unusually readable, guide to current thinking on the subject.
J. A. Sharpe, Social History Society Newsletter
`Russell has reformulated old questions, posed new ones, proposed insights galore, and constructed a perspective which some contest but none can ignore. It is a massive achievement ... The Causes of the English Civil War and he Fall of the British Monarchies, 1637-1642 show his creative intellectual power and his meticulous research ... The Causes of the English Civil War is an exciting book, brisk, lucid, and trenchant.'
Times Educational Supplement
`This must have been one of the few series of Ford lectures which, on the evidence of its published version, was a pleasure to have sat through ... Conrad Russell's Causes of the English Civil War provides an invaluable, and unusually readable, guide to current thinking on the subject.'
Social History Society Newsletter, Spring 1991
'The Oxford University Press is publishing and reissuing a number of books to mark the anniversary, including Clarendon's magisterial account of the rebellion, one of the still-readable classics of English historiography ... admirable new study.'
Paul Johnson, London Evening Standard
'Causes of the English Civil War, an interpretive essay that serves both as background and conclusion to the detailed narrative ... Together these two books reinforce his already considerable reputation as a historian who makes his fellows think - and think again'
G.W. Bernard, University of Southampton, History, June 1992
'For Russell ... has been far from idle, and he has now produced two major studies on the origins of the Civil War ... Fall is a detailed, blow-by-blow narrative of high politics over the years 1637 to 1642'
John Kenyon, University of Kansas, Journal of Modern History, Volume 64, Number 4, December 1992
`the product of a superb intelligence founded on an extraordinary mastery of the sources. Moreover it is written with economy, elegance and humour. No one who aspires to teach the 17th century, or to study it aiming at anything higher than a B grade at A level, can afford not to read it.'
G E Aylmer, Times Higher Education Supplement
`This book is the most radical reinterpretation of the causes of the Civil War since S. R. Gardiner published his classic account over a century ago...This succinct and elegantly written book is an intellectual tour de force. It is likely to set the terms of the debate on the causes of the English Civil War for many years to come.'
John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph
`... a major scholarly achievement ... humour and clarity with which the thesis is developed. The book is a joy to read, and to argue with.'
Times Literary Supplement
`Fundamental reappraisal of the origins of the war based on deep scholarship and long pondering: full of brilliant insights'
Professor A J Fletcher, Department of History, Durham University
`This is a clever, witty book, dexterously marshalling a mass of detailed information.'
Christopher Hill, The Spectator
`This is an excellent book which raises fundamental questions for an understanding of the outbreak of the civil war. All students will be required to read all or significant parts of it.'
Dr D M Dean, Goldsmith's College, University of London
`a tour de force of accessible scholarship ... It is difficult to exaggerate how far Russell has recast our account of these events ... Russell combines powers of narrative and analysis, the broad sweep with the narrow focus, theological abstractions with daily manoeuvre. Russell's vision of the civil war will henceforth be our ruling orthodoxy. His is a remarkable achievement.'
Jonathan Clark, The Times
`What is original and convincing abut Conrad Russell's book is his new approach through the tangled complexity of the relations among the three kingdoms.'
A. L. Rowse, The Telegraph
`Thoughout, the reader is treated to the experience of a first-class historian operating over a terrain he knows backwards. The erudition is formidable, the grasp of technicalitites impressive, yet the syle is admirable and the erudition is deployed and the technicalitites handled with consistent clarity. This must have been one of the few series of Ford lectures which, on the evidence of its published version, was a pleasure to have sat through.'
Social History Society Newsletter
`This is an excellent book which will become a standard text on the period.'
Dr R C Richardson, Head of History Department, King Alfred's College, Winchester
`... a first rate book ...'
Dr J A Sharpe, University of York
`A masterful revision of 17th century Britain that could be ruled no more, which deserves the award for academic highlight of the year.'
Glasgow Herald
`The Causes of the English Civil War is a remarkable book. Tightly and powerfully argued, compellingly lucid, it sustains its argumentative edge through every sentence.'
Blair Worden, London Review of Books
`Fine book'.
Robert Ashton, English Historical Review, Oct 1991.
