1688: The First Modern Revolution

Description

For two hundred years historians have viewed England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689 as an un-revolutionary revolution—bloodless, consensual, aristocratic, and above all, sensible. In this brilliant new interpretation Steve Pincus refutes this traditional view. By expanding the interpretive lens to include a broader geographical and chronological frame, Pincus demonstrates that England’s revolution was a European event, that it took place over a number of years, not months, and that it had repercussions in India, North America, the West Indies, and throughout continental Europe. His rich historical narrative, based on masses of new archival research, traces the transformation of English foreign policy, religious culture, and political economy that, he argues, was the intended consequence of the revolutionaries of 1688–1689. James II developed a modernization program that emphasized centralized control, repression of dissidents, and territorial empire. The revolutionaries, by contrast, took advantage of the new economic possibilities to create a bureaucratic but participatory state. The postrevolutionary English state emphasized its ideological break with the past and envisioned itself as continuing to evolve. All of this, argues Pincus, makes the Glorious Revolution—not the French Revolution—the first truly modern revolution. This wide-ranging book reenvisions the nature of the Glorious Revolution and of revolutions in general, the causes and consequences of commercialization, the nature of liberalism, and ultimately the origins and contours of modernity itself. Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments PART I. Introductory Map Introduction CHAPTER ONE. The Unmaking of a Revolution CHAPTER TWO. Rethinking Revolutions PART II. Prerevolutionary England CHAPTER THREE. Going Dutch: English Society in 1685 CHAPTER FOUR. English Politics at the Accession of James II CHAPTER FIVE. The Ideology of Catholic Modernity CHAPTER SIX. The Practice of Catholic Modernity CHAPTER SEVEN. Resistance to Catholic Modernization PART III. Revolution CHAPTER EIGHT. Popular Revolution CHAPTER NINE. Violent Revolution CHAPTER TEN. Divisive Revolution PART IV. Revolutionary Transformation CHAPTER ELEVEN. Revolution in Foreign Policy CHAPTER TWELVE. Revolution in Political Economy CHAPTER THIRTEEN. Revolution in the Church PART V. Conclusion CHAPTER FOURTEEN. Assassination, Association, and the Consolidation of Revolution CHAPTER FIFTEEN. Conclusion The First Modern Revolution Abbreviations Notes Manuscripts Consulted Index