3/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – Deckle Edge, April 11, 2023. by Jonathan Healey (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 5 August 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
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3/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – Deckle Edge, April 11, 2023. by Jonathan Healey (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Blazing-World-History-Revolutionary-1603-1689/dp/0593318358
The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics. In fiery, plague-ridden London, in coffee shops and alehouses, new ideas were forged that were angry, populist, and almost impossible for monarchs to control.
But the story of this century is less well known than it should be. Myths have grown around key figures. People may know about the Gunpowder Plot and the Great Fire of London, but the Civil War is a half-remembered mystery to many. And yet the seventeenth century has never seemed more relevant. The British constitution is once again being bent and contorted, and there is a clash of ideologies reminiscent of when Roundhead fought Cavalier.
The Blazing World is the story of this strange, twisting, fascinating century. It shows a society in sparkling detail. It was a new world of wealth, creativity, and daring curiosity, but also of greed, pugnacious arrogance, and colonial violence.
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| 0:17.0 | Little prices, big smiles. |
| 0:24.0 | I'm John Baxter, visiting with Jonathan Healey, an associate professor of history, |
| 0:28.0 | social history at Oxford University. |
| 0:30.0 | Most importantly, the author of a book I highly recommend to understand where America comes from. |
| 0:36.0 | The Blazing World, a new history of revolutionary England 1603 to 1689. |
| 0:42.0 | To my reading as an amateur, the cases and the presentations and the passions in Jonathan's book |
| 0:49.0 | will reappear as if by magic in the founders of the United States of America. |
| 0:55.0 | And the arguments that are in the 17th century are still with us. |
| 0:59.0 | I understand we've done a deal of learning since then, but the same idea of regents versus the people. |
| 1:07.0 | And what is the correct way to govern? Is it for the safety of the people? |
| 1:13.0 | Is it for the absolute power of the king? Is it somewhere in between? |
| 1:19.0 | We go now to Charles I, a young region, and his most important minister is the man he went dashing off to Spain with, |
| 1:26.0 | Buckingham, who's in charge of the fleet. |
| 1:29.0 | And yet that matter of money causes again and again the problems with Charles's early days of Charles's reign. |
| 1:37.0 | He's trying to deal with Parliament. |
| 1:39.0 | A deal here I noted Edward Koch is still with us. He's a very aged man at this point. |
| 1:45.0 | Do I have that correctly, Jonathan? He's still alive. |
| 1:48.0 | Yes, no, and Edward Koch is, I mean, a man of a very interesting career path, |
| 1:56.0 | a former attorney general to Queen Elizabeth. |
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