The Dissenters: Volume I: From the Reformation to the French Revolution

The Dissenters #1

by Michael R. Watts

Religious dissent has been a persistent feature of English and Welsh history for over four hundred years, influencing the economic, cultural, and political history of the two nations as well as their religious life. The Dissenters is the first of a projected three-volume study on the subject, which promises to be the first comprehensive overview of the subject in more than sixty years.

558 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 1978

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only read two chapters of this book (and likely won't read much more, as these chapters cover the period of my dissertation), but it's an excellent, very readable account of religious turmoil and the move toward toleration in the 17th century. It clearly lays out all the major participants, shed light on historical ambiguities, and outlines the central tensions that provoked first dissenters to turn liberators, and second to take an uneasy toleration pact. This sets the stage for eighteenth century religious thought to become a heated conversation rather than a particularly violent one (anticipating Elie Halevy's thesis that the Methodists' stabilized and cauterized revolutionary agendas that animated their French counterparts). I would recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the church.