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Oliver Cromwell (Reputations)

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J.C. Davis examines Oliver Cromwell's reputation and historians' assessments of Cromwell. Davis states that Oliver Cromwell's reputation is a study in paradoxes. He was ambitious for power yet refused to declare himself king. He believed in the power of Parliament yet used military force to shut one down. While Cromwell believed in his own greatness, and many biographers have tried to tarnish his image, Cromwell manages to escape. Those who thought him evil thought him greatly evil; those who considered him good considered him heroic. His greatness, good or ill, cannot be denied.
Davis seeks to analyze how historians have viewed Cromwell in several key areas. Davis first gives a brief biographical sketch of Cromwell to provide context for the reader. Davis then focuses on the historical opinions and assessments of Cromwell through the past several hundred years, including reactions immediately following Cromwell's death. The harshest criticism of Cromwell came during the Restoration. One particular example presented him as a personification of Satan. It was not until over one hundred fifty years later that historians stopped painting him as a clear-cut villain or hero, and instead focused more on Cromwell as a fallible human with both bad and good characteristics.
Davis studies each section of Cromwell's life to show the differing opinions historians have held. In presenting the rise of Cromwell from obscurity to fame, Davis evaluates several biographers to show how Cromwell's reputation as a self-made man varies from author to author. There are two basic views: the first saw Cromwell as a representative of the middle class who rose to great power; the second saw him as a representative of the rising Puritanism movement. In either case, great movements were the key to his rise to power.
Davis also analyzes Cromwell's reputation as a military leader. Historians generally conclude that he was an excellent military leader, primarily because his military victories are hard to refute. Next, Davis looks at Cromwell's reputation as a man of God, because they are inextricably linked with politics. Cromwell believed that every action he took in politics and the military was God's will and he sought daily to reaffirm that his actions were in accordance with God's wishes. Cromwell the politician and state builder is Davis's next focus. Cromwell was an inexperienced Member of Parliament who rose to Lord Protector, and then struggled to build a new state. His actions that violated the tenets of the ancient constitution of England created a void; he filled it by building a different, functioning state.
Davis makes his theme clear in the introduction: he will look at the differences in the portrayals of Cromwell throughout history. The theme was clearly stated and adequately previewed, giving a good understanding of what Davis was going to be looking at and analyzing. The author consistently brings each of the arguments back to his theme and shows how they fit. His theme is particularly clear when discussing Cromwell's religious beliefs, probably due to the fact that so much has been written about that topic. The theme was perhaps the least effectively seen in the section dealing with Cromwell as a military leader. Davis tended to focus more on the facts of history and less on the reactions of historians. At the end of each chapter, he sums up the point and indicates how it related to his primary point.
At no time did Davis attempted to use emotionally persuasive appeals. He utilized clear and unbiased language to make his point, backed up with objective evidence, and generally allowed the historians' words to speak for themselves, with commentary for context.
The style of writing was clear and easy to understand most of the time. Occasionally Davis tried to squeeze too much information into one sentence, making it convoluted and difficult to comprehend. But the sentences were normally short and clear. One problem I did see repeated frequently was that commas appeared to be missing at places in the text. Whether this can be attributed to the English writing style or to typos, it does make some paragraphs and sentences hard to follow, and these are in need of several readings to fully comprehend where one thought ends and another begins.
Since the thesis relates directly to other historians' work, it is appropriate that the author's research is composed largely of secondary sources. While Davis used the published speeches and letters of Cromwell for Cromwell's personal reaction, Davis also read widely to achieve a complete look at the opinions about Cromwell. Hundreds of secondary writings about Cromwell, from directly after the Restoration to the time of publication, are cited. Primary works, such as diaries, government records, and letters are also included. The "Notes" section functions as a brief annotated bibliography, including further explanation about the material cited, evaluations about the usefulness of the work, and suggestions for further study.
Two other helpful devices are included: an index and a chronology. The index is not particularly detailed, but it does list the main characters and ideas. The chronology covers 1599 to 1658 (from Cromwell's birth until death). It is primarily useful because it places significant events in Cromwell's life in context with the important events occurring at that time.

Cromwell is an amazingly enigmatic figure in spite of an incredibly public career. He was revered and feared by the people around him to the point where they could not know him the way they knew each other - from the time he assumed the leadership of the English Revolution, he became an object of awe, a force of nature, a figure so much larger than life that he seemed above even the most extraordinary of his peers. This book goes a long way toward helping the reader understand Cromwell the man riding the crest of English history.

Oliver Cromwell will forever remain an engimatic figure as he was both a reluctant leader and a military dictator at the same time. Davis' look into his lifely is incredibly fraught with attempts to justify his actions as being for the overall "good" despite how much "evil" he committed. While I do not believe that this is a book to "condone the war in Iraq" as one reviewer put it, it is extremely biased and any researcher using it must be careful not to take everything Davis' says to heart. As my favorite English professor used to say, "Take everything written with a grain of salt." What is a fact is that Mr. Davis is an extremely well versed historian and expert on Oliver Cromwell. It can also be a difficult read if you have no interest in the time period, the man and feel no love toward Cromwell. Otherwise, it is something every European historian should own.

I have always been interested in European history, particuarly English History. I bought this book with the hopes of learning objectively (or at least as objective as a person can be) about a truly forceful and powerful man. For better or for worse, Cromwell was certainly a tranformative individual in the course of human history.

I was disappointed in a big way. The author spends a lot of time trying to absolve Olvier Cromwell of any guilt, claiming that what's publicly known about Cromwell is simply the "Public" story.

So what was the great unveiling of knowledge that will exhonerate Oliver Cromwell? According to the author, well, he was a religious man after all. Somehow in the authors mind (and many other unfortunatly) being religious presupposes ethics, honesty and integrity - all in the name of God to massacre people. Are we to write-off all the misdeeds he did to his fellow man because he was religious? If anything, religion has been used against man as a weapon for cruelty, torture, subjegation and killings. According to the author the argument boils down to this: Cromwell was a religious man, like our illustrious president, Dubya, Who feels it necessary to translate the word of God for us plebians, and feels justified to act according to the messages he received. Its these dangerous justifications that have caused a great deal of danger to this planet. It makes you wonder how the Religious Right will one day interpret this invasion of Iraq.