The Rule of Moderation: Violence, Religion and the Politics of Restraint in Early Modern England

by Ethan H. Shagan

Why was it that whenever the Tudor-Stuart regime most loudly trumpeted its moderation, the regime was at its most vicious? With the answer to this fundamental question at its heart, The Rule of Moderation comprehensively rewrites the history of early modern England, showing that many of its key developments―the via media of Anglicanism, the rise of the 'middle sort', the idea of political liberty, the development of empire, the rise of religious toleration―were defined and defended as instances of coercive and aggressive moderation, producing the 'middle way' through the forcible restraint of apparently dangerous excesses in Church, state and society. Ethan Shagan draws on literary and historical sources to illuminate the subtle violence of English history and explain how, paradoxically, England came to represent reason, civility and moderation to a world it slowly conquered. The quintessentially English quality of moderation was, at heart, an ideology of control.

Genres: Nonfiction

396 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 2011

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book a bit repetitive though the central idea was an interesting one. Early modern use of the word "moderation" was not ours and assumed an amount of violent restraint necessary to its existence. But the repetition of this central idea in relation to different areas got to be a bit much.