The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to the Seventeenth Century: 1660-1700 - Softcover

Mortimer, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1681778017 ISBN 13: 9781681778013

Publisher: Pegasus Books, 2018

Synopsis

This is an up-close-and-personal look at Britain between the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 and the end of the century. The last witch is sentenced to death just two years before Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, the bedrock of modern science, is published. Religion still has a severe grip on society and yet some--including the king--flout every moral convention they can find. There are great fires in London and Edinburgh; the plague disappears; a global trading empire develops.

Over these four dynamic decades, the last vestiges of medievalism are swept away and replaced by a tremendous cultural flowering. Why are half the people you meet under the age of twenty-one? What is considered rude? And why is dueling so popular? Mortimer delves into the nuances of daily life to paint a vibrant and detailed picture of society at the dawn of the modern world as only he can.

About this title

Review:

Displaying an impressive range and depth of knowledge as well as a writerly instinct for dramatic presentation, Mortimer continues his you-are-there approach to English history. Mortimer deeply immerses the reader in this world, imparting an amazing first-hand feel for what living in the era was like. This is a sure bet for history lovers and readers with a penchant for unusual travelogues.

Mortimer has magicked us back to a historical period starting approximately 350 years ago. History comes in many shapes and forms, moved and crafted by the availability of knowledge, by ideology, and shifting modes of inquiry, by angles of approach, by a desire for distance or intimacy. Mortimer is of the latter camp; not the first in the history of history, but a peerless purveyor of its ilk.

An accessible book, entertaining and learned, for professional historians and general readers alike.

About the Author:

Dr. Ian Mortimer is best known as the author of The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England and The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, which were both national bestsellers. He was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society for his work on the social history of medicine. Ian is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He lives in England. Please visit his website at www.ianmortimer.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1681778017
• ISBN 13: 9781681778013
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 454