The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529-1642 [Paperback]

Lawrence Stone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 14, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0415266734 | ISBN-13: 978-0415266734

Contains much the best all-round analysis of the causes of the English Revolution that we have. It synthesizes and makes sense of the research of a whole generation of scholars.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Contains much the best all-round analysis of the causes of the English Revolution that we have. It synthesizes and makes sense of the research of a whole generation of scholars. It is packed not only with judicious and well-founded generalizations but also with stimulating ideas, expressed with verve and wit.' - Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

Lawrence Stone was Emeritus Professor of History at Princeton University. His many other publications include The Past and the Present Revisited (Routledge, 1987) and An Imperial State at War: Britain from 1689 to 1815 (Routledge, 1993).

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (December 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415266734
• ISBN-13: 978-0415266734
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When reforms turn revolutionary......., October 5, 2004

By 

Gary C. Marfin (Sugar Land, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529-1642 (Paperback)

In 1640 few supported the dissolution of the monarchy or the House of Lords...The heart of this book is its long chapter on the causes of the English revolution. That revolution, Stone maintains, was in a real sense caused by the dissolution of government (rather than causing its dissolution); that "class" warfare along Marxist explanatory lines is not applicable to the revolution and; that the revolution was more than a reaction to unpopular monarch. He then sets out to identify the long-term, underlying causes of the war and its more proximate catalysts. His discussion of the weak reach of the Tudor bureaucracy and its corresponding lack of credibility as a legal enforcer, and his discussion of the impact of Puritan thought are especially compelling.

The first section of the book surveys the methodological issues involved in explaining revolution. This survey, though somewhat dated by now, still provides useful insights. And, he has a caustic eye for those of his colleagues who prefer an arid, artifically technical jargon over clarity and concise prose.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Academic historical analysis, January 21, 2008

By 

Joe Cicero "a rational man" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529-1642 (Paperback)

This is analytical history, not the narrative sort. A reader would do well to have a fair sense of Tudor England before taking on this volume. Stone examines a list of causes for the civil war that encompasses political, economic, social, and religious frictions. Although he quibbles with his own summation of "multiple dysfunction" as the explanation for the Civil War, it makes a viable argument, however it is phrased. Henry VIII opened a Pandora's Box that affected far more than religion when he established the Church of England. Elizabeth artfully dodged many of the conflicts set off by her father for forty years, but left a seething mess for her successors. The Stuarts proved inept stewards of their legacy at a time when the aristocracy, gentry, and a rising merchant class were asserting their own priorities and an expansively literate laboring class was inventing a plethora of new religious and political notions. Stone divides these causes into preconditions, precipitants, and triggers of armed conflict, while acknowledging that war was not inevitable from structural conditions. That this book should be reprinted thirty years after its original publication speaks to its insight and relevance.

P.S. Valuable as it is, this book is no page-turner. It is written in academic prose, though hardly the worst of the sort. Be prepared for bouts of internecine sparring as Stone crosses swords with detractors and critics in defense his methodologies and analyses -- but soldier on.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Penetrating and Thoughtful Survey, June 26, 2011

By 

conjunction - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Causes of the English Revolution, 1529-1642 (Paperback)

This book reminds me of Doyle's `Origins of the French Revolution', constructed as it is in much the same way. Stone begins, interestingly, with a consideration of general theories about types of revolution and what leads to them. He moves on to a narrative about the different views historians have taken about the causes of this particular revolution.

These chapters are not great fun but Stone has an incisive style and makes his points well.

Finally he advances to his own account of the causes, which occupies two thirds of the book.

The picture he paints, as a reviewer on Amazon.com has pointed out, is that Henry VIII opened a Pandora's box by getting into bed with Parliament in a systematic way in order to iron out the details of his divorce and break with Rome. As a consequence, Parliament became accustomed to an integral role in the shaping of the centralized state that Henry and his father before him were developing.

Furthermore, the break with Rome begged the question: `What religion?' This was a question to which Henry's answer, and Elizabeth's after him, was to play a pretty straight bat. Stone suggests that Elizabeth in particular effectively almost marginalised the importance of religion, opting for a compromise which was only accepted because of the charm and balance with which she played off all parties against each other.

Stone says the net result was that after she died the Puritan and Catholic gentry, who had benefited from the great improvement in educational standards in the latter part of her reign, and grown from the massive increase in numbers and wealth of the gentry, were in strong and entrenched positions when James's government began to break down. Stone criticises Elizabeth for not tackling the religious issue head on, which he thinks might have pre-empted the conflicts of the Stuart period.

He points to the intransigence of James and Charles especially as regards their refusal to truck with Parliament and their anti-Puritan bias. He points out that however wilful and ill-advised they might now seem, they were only doing what any self-respecting monarch of the Ancien Regime in Europe would have done.

In England however, in the context of what Henry VIII had started and Elizabeth consolidated, it didn't wash. Stone suggests that the attempt by Charles I to force Ireland and Scotland with blinding insensitivity to fall in with his plans was what sealed his fate, in that it alerted the English aristos and gentry to what was in store for them if they didn't resist. He also highlights how the nascent London banking and trading scene, fiercely radical in terms of religion, effectively lit the blue touch paper when they had been alienated by the king.

This is an essay, written in trenchant style, perhaps rather in the tradition of Elton's history of the Tudors, but you need to have a good basic grasp of Tudor and Stuart history to really benefit from it.