Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution: Revisited

by Christopher Hill

This is a revised edition of Christopher Hill's classic and groundbreaking examination of the motivations behind the English Revolution, first published in 1965. In addition to the text of the original, Dr Hill provides thirteen new chapters which take account of other publications since the first edition, bringing his work up-to-date in a stimulating and enjoyable way.

Genres: History, Philosophy, Nonfiction, British Literature, Politics, 17th Century

Hardcover

First published March 1, 1965

About the author

John Edward Christopher Hill was the pre-eminent historian of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English history, and one of the most distinguished historians of recent times. Fellow historian E.P. Thompson once referred to him as the dean and paragon of English historians.

He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II, he served in the Russian department of the British Foreign Office, returning to teach at Oxford after the war.

From 1958-1965 he was University Lecturer in 16th- and 17th-century history, and from 1965-1978 he was Master of Balliol College. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the British Academy. He received numerous honorary degrees over the course of his career, including the Hon. Dr. Sorbonne Nouvelle in 1979.

Hill was an active Marxist and a member of the Communist Party from approximately 1934-1957, falling out with the Party after the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian uprisings of 1956.

In their obituary, The Guardian wrote of Hill:

"Christopher Hill…was the commanding interpreter of 17th-century England, and of much else besides.…it was as the defining Marxist historian of the century of revolution, the title of one of the most widely studied of his many books, that he became known to generations of students around the world. For all these, too, he will always be the master." [http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/...]

Reviews

[Mauricio Martínez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un análisis sobre las corrientes ideológicas que llevaron a la revolución inglesa. Principalmente las relacionadas a la importancia de la Medicina, la Matemática y la Química, como la explosión en la investigación en estos campos dentro de la clase media emprendedora de Inglaterra llevó a un pensamiento mas radical, una ruptura con el sistema totalmente controlado por el poder de la iglesia y la teología.
Los intereses comerciales e industriales, atados a el desarrollo científico, y a una visión imperialista, junto a un cambio en la visión jurídica, llevaron a una revolución que marcó un antes y un después en la historia mundial.
El libro trata de no centrarse en el puritanismo, lo trata de costado, ya que es inevitable, pero no es su tesis central, sino más bien como la visión crítica del puritanismo habilitó de cierta forma este desarrollo científico y político.
Lectura apasionante, aunque quizás de a momentos un poco tediosa en lo que a densidad de información respecta, pero dado que está adaptado de una serie de charlas, se perdona.

[Dr G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this very interesting.
The thesis is that the period following the Spanish Armada's unsuccessful foray and up to the Civil War was a period of intense intellectual activity and that this was led, not by the Oxbridge academics, but by an array of merchants and artisans. The universities were focused on the classics, Latin and Greek, and ignored or paid little attention to any learning post-Aristotle.
The new developments in knowledge, particularly scientific, medical and mathematical, were all complementary to the change in attitude to authority brought about by the rejection of Catholic church authority through the Reformation. As a result, there was something of an informal alliance between the people involved with the new knowledge, and the Puritans.
One crucial development was the establishment of Gresham College in London, an institution providing free lectures, and in English rather than Latin. Lectures were not simple commentaries on classical texts but would include demonstrations of common practice.
Following the end of the Civil War, the trend was to: aggressive imperialism; economic liberalism; tax redistribution; and the advance of modern science. Sir Walter Ralegh, the man whom James I had irrationally and obsessively seen as such an enemy, had been centrally involved in all of these matters until his execution.
The antagonism between a backward-looking university class and an innovative, ground-breaking merchant/artisan class, and the alignment of the innovators with the anti-Royalist Puritans were interesting concepts I had not previously encountered. The author states that his focus has been on offering substantiation to his theories rather than considering material which runs counter. Nevertheless, I found the argument thorough and convincing.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engagingly written, but there is concern that Hill is mining the information, and only including that which supports his thesis (which remains an English 'revolution' based on a rising middle class).

[H Wesselius · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent discussion