A Freeborn People: Politics and the Nation in Seventeenth-Century England - Hardcover

Underdown, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198206127 ISBN 13: 9780198206125

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1996

Synopsis

A Freeborn People is a provocative exploration of the ways in which the political cultures of the elite and of common people intersected during the seventeenth century. David Underdown shows that the two worlds were not as separate as historians have often thought them to be; English men and women of all social levels had similar expectations about good government and about the traditional liberties available to them under the `Ancient Constitution'. Throughout the century, both levels of politics were also powerfully influenced by prevailing assumptions about gender roles, and, especially in the years before the civil wars, by fears that the country was threatened by evil forces of satanic inversion.

This dramatic reinterpretation of the Stuart period, based on the author's acclaimed 1992 Ford Lectures, begins a new chapter in the continuing debate over the historical meaning of Britain's seventeenth-century revolutions.

About this title

About the Author

David Underdown is George Burton Adams Professor of History at Yale University. His books include Revel, Riot, and Rebellion: Popular Politics and Culture in England 1603-1660, reissued in May 1996 in Oxford Paperbacks.

From the Back Cover

A Freeborn People is a provocative exploration of the ways in which the political cultures of the elite and of the common people intersected during the seventeenth century. David Underdown shows that the two worlds were not as separate as historians have often thought them to be; English men and women of all social levels had similar expectations about good government and about the traditional liberties available to them under the 'Ancient Constitution'. Throughout the century, both levels of politics were also powerfully influenced by prevailing assumptions about gender roles, and, especially in the years before the civil wars, by fears that the country was threatened by evil forces of satanic inversion. This dramatic reinterpretation of the Stuart period, based on the author's acclaimed 1992 Ford Lectures, begins a new chapter in the continuing debate over the historical meaning of Britain's seventeenth-century revolutions.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198206127
• ISBN 13: 9780198206125
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192