6/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – by Jonathan Healey (Author)

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Books, Society & Culture, Arts

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

6/8: 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.

1658 CROWELL

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere rejoiced.
0:05.8	Oh yeah.
0:06.6	Because now they could listen to one audiobook title a month from an enormous library of popular audiobook
0:12.2	titles including Romantasy, autobiographies, true crime, and more.
0:19.3	Suddenly listeners didn't mind sitting in traffic or even missing their
0:22.6	flight. Amazon Music Unlimited now includes audible. Download the Amazon Music app now to start listening.
0:29.3	Terms apply. With Jonathan Healy, his new book is The Blazing World and New History of Revolutionary
0:34.3	England 1603 to 1689. It is now time to say the king is dead and not say long live the king.
0:42.6	Parliament has choices to make.
0:45.3	And a man named John Lambert writes, instruments of government, in which from his
0:50.9	understanding of the violence of the age, he looks to a way of guaranteeing the power
0:57.0	of the people through Parliament, but he names a man Lord Protector, who is Oliver Cromwell.
1:03.0	Thomas Fairfax, the general of the New Model Army, has stepped away and will not participate
1:09.0	in the parliamentary debates, but Oliver Cromwell steps forward.
1:13.6	And Jonathan, you write that Cromwell's five years in power, thanks to Lambert's design, can be regarded as successful,
1:23.6	noting the massacres in Ireland, noting some of the inconsistencies about Cromwell.
1:30.2	Is that the opinion of Cromwell here in the 21st century in England, that Cromwell had
1:35.6	his weaknesses, but there was strength in his rule?
1:38.3	Well, I mean, there's definitely, I mean, it's hard to argue that there isn't strength.
1:42.0	That doesn't necessarily mean that he's a good thing or anything like that.
1:47.3	When you consider what the situation was in 1649,
1:51.6	where England had shockingly brutally murdered its monarch,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.