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The Great Rebellion
This book provides the standard narrative history of the English Civil War. The middle decades of the 17th century were among the most disturbed and exciting in our history. The British Isles went up “like parchment in the fire;” a civil war broke out that would kill over half-a-million men, women and children; King Charles I was tried and executed for treason; and the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished almost overnight. After a decade of diverse republican regimes kingship was unexpectedly and peaceably brought back. But things would never be quite what they had been before.
- GenresHistory
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 6, 2012
This is a decent overview of the English Civil War, especially good at tracing all the labyrinthine political machinations and providing a neat outline of military endeavors.
The writing is lively but lacking in clarity at points, and may be a bit unapproachable to someone who is unfamiliar with the topic. There are several occasions where large events are mentioned only in passing, with the assumption that the reader already knows the details. The trial of Charles I, for example, is given a page to describe how moving and interesting it was, but Roots never actually recounts what occurs (which is a bummer, because he made it sound kinda fascinating). But it is very good at tracing what all the varieties of Parliament during this period were up to, so if you already have a decent understanding of the narrative this may be a helpful second book to read.
The writing is lively but lacking in clarity at points, and may be a bit unapproachable to someone who is unfamiliar with the topic. There are several occasions where large events are mentioned only in passing, with the assumption that the reader already knows the details. The trial of Charles I, for example, is given a page to describe how moving and interesting it was, but Roots never actually recounts what occurs (which is a bummer, because he made it sound kinda fascinating). But it is very good at tracing what all the varieties of Parliament during this period were up to, so if you already have a decent understanding of the narrative this may be a helpful second book to read.
October 19, 2011
Good information on that chaotic time period. I'm trying to figure out how my ancestors were influenced by the politics and government switching that took place. Ivan Roots over uses the thesaurus. He must be trying to impress the reader with his great but tedious vocabulary. Not to be too niggling, but many of the words were off, slightly malapropism like. I wonder what his writing would have been like if he had wrote in English.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews