The Glorious Revolution - Hardcover

Edward-vallance

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316726818 ISBN 13: 9780316726818

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company, 2006

Synopsis

In this new, highly readable history of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-when James II was supplanted on the English throne by William, Prince of Orange, and his English wife Mary-Edward Vallance challenges the view that it was a bloodless coup in the name of progress, arguing instead that the revolution was a brutal Protestant struggle to obtain power. Meticulously researched and told with verve and color, this will remain the definitive narrative of the Glorious Revolution for years to come.

About this title

About the Author

Edward Vallance completed his B.A and PhD at Balliol College, Oxford. From 2000 to 2002 he was the De Velling Willis Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield. He is now a lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Liverpool.

From Publishers Weekly

England's Glorious Revolution—when the ruling, quasi-Catholic Stuart dynasty was usurped by the robustly Protestant William of Orange—has traditionally been regarded as the most boring revolution ever. It was quick, it was bloodless, it was polite—all very English, in other words. As Vallance's epigraphs show, commentators as diverse as Karl Marx and Margaret Thatcher agreed that William's ascent to the throne led to Britain's rise as a commercial, democratic, religiously tolerant world power. Vallance, a professor of early modern history at the University of Liverpool, aims to upset this comfortable consensus and to inject some vividness, action and even gore into the story. He succeeds nicely and his account serves as an admirable introduction to this confusing era. Writing with brio, Vallance possesses a sound grasp of narrative pacing and clarifies the often incomprehensible (at least to modern readers) political, religious and constitutional issues of the time. Paradoxically, Vallance is weakest on the personal character and motivations of the deposed king James II, who remains something of a cipher. Though Vallance wrote originally for a British audience, American readers will be startled to discover how greatly their founders relied on the principles of the Glorious Revolution a century later. 8 pages of color illus. (Apr. 16)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316726818
• ISBN 13: 9780316726818
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 372