7/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – by Jonathan Healey (Author)

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 24 December 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

7/8: 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.

1661 REVOLUTION

Transcript

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0:00.0	Once upon a time, Amazon Music met audiobooks and listeners everywhere rejoiced.
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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 flight.
0:23.4	Amazon Music Unlimited now includes Audible. No way. Download the Amazon Music app now to start listening.
0:29.2	Terms apply.
0:31.0	I'm John Batchel with Professor Jonathan Healy, Oxford University. His new book is The Blazing World,
0:38.9	a new history of Revolutionary England, 1603 to 1689.
0:41.9	The themes, the arguments, the statements, the risks, all here in the 17th century that
0:47.9	will be echoed by the founding fathers in the 18th century in America.
0:53.7	And much of the contest today between the people and their
0:59.0	representatives and in America the President we can see very much consistent with the doubts
1:06.0	and the dreams of the men who led to a regicide, the cutting off of the head of Charles I, and then
1:14.6	to the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, a farmer from East Anglia, who dies in September
1:21.6	of 1659, I believe, 1658. And the question of succession is not present.
1:32.3	At some point they figured maybe his eldest son, Richard, that didn't work out because Richard turned out to be a very friendly, popular person, but no Lord Protector.
1:43.3	So now we turn to Parliament.
1:44.9	Who is to be next?
1:47.6	And Jonathan, this is a fascination because everything that was enforced during
1:54.3	Parliament's time, during Oliver Cromwell's time, and before by the Puritans, now is
2:00.7	to be tossed out with the bathwater.
	...

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