Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England

To understand the English (or Puritan) Revolution and Civil War, the struggles which tore England apart in the mid-seventeenth-century, we need to understand Puritanism. This book cuts through the misconceptions to show Puritanism as a living faith answering the hopes and fears of yeomen and gentlemen, merchants and artisans. Professor Hill looks at all the major issues of the time - oath-taking and the Sabbath, bawdy courts and poor relief - and considers Puritan stress on the household (rather than the parish) and the dignity of labour. Throughout, he provides the depth of insight familiar to readers of The World Turned Upside Down, showing how Puritanism helped men and women live their ordinary lives, and how there arose those strange, seemingly so paradoxical creatures - the Puritan revolutionaries.