5/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – by Jonathan Healey (Author)

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🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

5/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – 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.

1648 OLIVER CROMWELL

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0:00.0	Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere rejoiced.
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0:22.6	flight. Amazon Music Unlimited now includes audible. No way. Download the Amazon Music app now to start
0:28.4	listening. Terms apply. Continuing with Associate Professor of Social History at Oxford University,
0:34.5	Jonathan Healy, his new book, The Blazing World, is a new history of
0:39.2	Revolutionary England, 1603 to 1689.
0:43.3	It is now 1646.
0:46.3	Charles I, the First, the region of England and Ireland, this is everything we understand,
0:51.7	the power of the king, surrenders to the Scots called the Covenanters
0:56.3	because he's being pursued by the New Model Army led by Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell
1:03.0	Jonathan we go immediately to the personalities of these leaders of the New Model Army
1:10.1	because that will be determinative of this regicide upon us
1:15.9	what is the new model army and what is fairfax to it what is cromwell to it at this point thank you
1:21.9	well the new model army was the attempt by parliament to reorganise their forces because they had found themselves
1:31.3	in a sort of winning position in the civil war that had taken place and then they'd blown it,
1:37.8	they'd made a mess of it. And they'd decided that part of the problem was that the commanders,
1:43.5	particularly the earls of Essex and the Earl of Manchester,
1:46.3	were not sufficiently committed to full victory. They wanted to sort of, you know, win the battles
1:51.5	against the King and they'd go back to the negotiating table, whereas actually what's, what needed to be
	...

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