Making Toleration: The Repealers and the Glorious Revolution (Harvard Historical Studies): 181 - Hardcover

Scott Sowerby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674073096 ISBN 13: 9780674073098

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2013

Synopsis

In the reign of James II, minority groups from across the religious spectrum, led by the Quaker William Penn, rallied together under the Catholic King James in an effort to bring religious toleration to England. Known as repealers, these reformers aimed to convince Parliament to repeal laws that penalized worshippers who failed to conform to the doctrines of the Church of England. Although the movement was destroyed by the Glorious Revolution, it profoundly influenced the post-revolutionary settlement, helping to develop the ideals of tolerance that would define the European Enlightenment. Based on a rich array of newly discovered archival sources, Scott Sowerby's groundbreaking history rescues the repealers from undeserved obscurity, telling the forgotten story of men and women who stood up for their beliefs at a formative moment in British history. By restoring the repealer movement to its rightful prominence, Making Toleration also overturns traditional interpretations of King James II's reign and the origins of the Glorious Revolution. Though often depicted as a despot who sought to impose his own Catholic faith on a Protestant people, James is revealed as a man ahead of his time, a king who pressed for religious toleration at the expense of his throne. The Glorious Revolution, Sowerby finds, was not primarily a crisis provoked by political repression. It was, in fact, a conservative counter-revolution against the movement for enlightened reform that James himself encouraged and sustained.

About this title

Product Description

Very Good, In Very Good condition. Inscription to free-end paper otherwise no defects.

Review

"One of the lasting consequences of the Glorious Revolution in England was the Toleration Act of 1689, which granted freedom of worship, but not full political rights, to almost all Protestant Dissenters, but not Roman Catholics. It is generally recognized that this Act was Parliament's response to James II's campaign to secure toleration and political rights for both Dissenters and Catholics by repealing the penal laws and Test Acts. This important new book, by a talented young historian, systematically examines the supporters of repeal and argues that their importance, and their significance in the Revolution, have been underestimated." --John Miller, Queen Mary, University Of London
"James II has usually been portrayed as an incompetent, bullying, monarch: scornful of public opinion and possessed of a rare talent for alienating his subjects. [...] But perhaps he was not the worst of kings. On the strength of this excellent book we can conclude that he was far more intelligent than is usually supposed and we are reminded that he emptied more prison cells than he filled. As for the 'Repealers' of the books's sub title, Sowerby provides an extraordinary detailed portrait of this plucky band of religious dissenters who recognised that history might finally be on their side" --Jonathan Wright, The Catholic Herald, 22nd March 2013

"Scott Sowerby's bold and provocative book seeks to put back into history those he regards as a forgotten group of people - 'the repealers' [...] The undoubted achievement of Sowerby's research is to demonstrate that the repealers' cause was buttressed by a well-thought-out set of religious and political points" --Jeremy Gregory, Church Times 23 January 2014

"This important book is one of the most original interpretations of the Glorious Revolution to appear for a generation...Scott Sowerby's book is trenchant, absorbing and felicitously written...Making Toleration is required reading for all students of the Glorious Revolution and the growing audience for the history of toleration." --The English Historical Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0674073096
• ISBN 13: 9780674073098
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416