Product Details

New England Book Festival

Honorable Mention in the Non-Fiction category of the 2009 New England Book Festival sponsored by the Larimar St. Croix Writers Colony, The Hollywood Creative Directory; eDivvy, Shopanista and Westside Websites

The National

“One of the most ambitious works of history to appear in recent years--a radical reinterpretation of events that intends not merely to update and improve prior accounts but to vanquish them conclusively. The book is a marvel of scholarship.”--The National

Connecticut Center for the Book

— Connecticut Book Award finalist

Paul Monod - Journal of Church History

"The grand aspirations of this book and the broad sweep of its claims will insure that it is taken seriously by scholars working on the Glorious Revolution for years to come...It will stand out as the opening salvo in a series of historical batkes that wukk light up 1688 in newly vibrant tones."--Paul Monod, Journal of Church History

Independent Publishers Book Awards

Bronze Medal winner for the 2010 Independent Publishers Book Awards in the History Category

American Historical Association

Winner of the 2010 Morris D. Forkosch Prize given by the American Historical Association

— Morris D. Forkosch Prize

National Review

"Meticulously researched and deftly written" —Andrew Stuttaford, National Review

— Andrew Stuttaford

Economist

“Mr. Pincus’s cogently argued account of what really happened during England’s revolution destroys many comforting notions that have prevailed for more than 200 years…. It leaves the reader with something much more exciting: a new understanding of the origins of the modern, liberal state.”--Economist

Canadian Journal of History

"A significant contribution to the scholarship of the period. . . . Pincus develops his analysis through lively writing informed by extensive primary-source research. . . . There is much to be said for Pincus''s approach, blending economic and political theory together with seemingly effortless ease in a well-written and highly readable account...In the end, there is every reason to think that his analysis of the events of late-seventeenth-century England will, for want of a better term, revolutionize our understanding of the period."—Scott Hendrix, Canadian Journal of History

— Scott Hendrix

Wilson Quarterly

Named a Top 10 Book of 2010--Wilson Quarterly

New York Review of Books

"[A]n important, fresh, and imaginative work of scholarship. . . . It will have recast the origins of modern England as well as the history of the revolution of 1688."—Bernard Bailyn, New York Review of Books

— Bernard Bailyn

Library Journal

The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 has traditionally been viewed as a very "un-revolutionay" revolution in the sense that is was seen as bloodless, consensual, and conservative. Pincus (history, Yale Univ.; The Politics of the Public Sphere in Early Modern England) refutes this view and instead argues that it was a complex event that had its origins in the previous century, was deeply influenced by the broader situation in Europe, and, most important, was the first truly modern revolution in the sense that it was "popular, violent and divisive," radically transforming English society. Using brilliant historical narrative, Pincus draws on numerous archival sources to detail the causes and consequences of various components of the revolution, including foreign policy, political economy, the Church, the popular revolution, and the violent revolution, also discussing revolutions in general. VERDICT This is a highly impressive work that will ultimately change our understanding of the Glorious Revolution. Essential reading for all students of British history or of historical revolutions generally.—Carrie Benbow, Toronto P.L., Ont.

What People Are Saying

A radical interpretation of a radical revolution. Steve Pincus's brilliantly researched account of the extraordinary events of the 1680s and 1690s mounts an insuperable challenge to the comfortable view that the Glorious Revolution was another instance of British consensus politics, pragmatism, and common sense. 1688 recaptures the revolutionary nature of the Glorious Revolution and its far-reaching and interconnected conflicts over foreign policy, political economy, religion, and the nature of the modern state.(John Brewer, California Institute of Technology)

What People Are Saying

In this remarkable work of scholarship, vast in scope and profound in its implications, Pincus challenges Macaulay and the orthodox view that the Glorious Revolution was moderate, peaceful, and conservative, and reveals a violent transformational event that revolutionized England's state, church, and political economy, and introduced political modernity.(Bernard Bailyn, Harvard University)

What People Are Saying

Utterly extraordinary.(Don Herzog, University of Michigan)

What People Are Saying

A magnificent, fully documented, very well written study of how the first thorough-going modern revolution was achieved with effort and against substantial obstacles over several years. It was bloody and popular, not merely a palace coup achieved with little loss of life, as is commonly held. Taking a broader chronological view and considering more aspects of society than previous historians, Pincus convincingly shows how England had become a commercial society by the 1680s, and the race was on to harness new wealth—a race between the absolutist modernizing vision of James II and the more tolerant and liberty-minded vision of his opponents. What emerged was the first modern state, with independent financial institutions and a strong sense of national and civil, as opposed to confessional, interest. The triumph of William III and his supporters was a conscious re-ordering of the place of the three kingdoms on the European and world stage. Pincus's commitment to vigorous argument (in which he overturns many received views; his definition of revolution itself is bracingly refreshing) makes this book exciting reading, and will raise fascinated interest in the late 17th-century for many years to come. For anyone interested in modern liberal society, its origins, and why it is worth defending, this book is indispensable.(Nigel Smith, Princeton University)