The Causes of the English Revolution 1529-1642

This is analytical history, not the narrative sort. A reader would do well to have a fair sense of Tudor England before taking on this volume. Stone examines a list of causes for the civil war that encompasses political, economic, social, and religious frictions. Although he quibbles with his own summation of "multiple dysfunction" as the explanation for the Civil War, it makes a viable argument, however it is phrased. Henry VIII opened a Pandora's Box that affected far more than religion when he established the Church of England. Elizabeth artfully dodged many of the conflicts set off by her father for forty years, but left a seething mess for her successors. The Stuarts proved inept stewards of their legacy at a time when the aristocracy, gentry, and a rising merchant class were asserting their own priorities and an expansively literate laboring class was inventing a plethora of new religious and political notions. Stone divides these causes into preconditions, precipitants, and triggers of armed conflict, while acknowledging that war was not inevitable from structural conditions. That this book should be reprinted thirty years after its original publication speaks to its insight and relevance. P.S. Valuable as it is, this book is no page-turner. It is written in academic prose, though hardly the worst of the sort. Be prepared for bouts of internecine sparring as Stone crosses swords with detractors and critics in defense his methodologies and analyses -- but soldier on.

In 1640 few supported the dissolution of the monarchy or the House of Lords...The heart of this book is its long chapter on the causes of the English revolution. That revolution, Stone maintains, was in a real sense caused by the dissolution of government (rather than causing its dissolution); that "class" warfare along Marxist explanatory lines is not applicable to the revolution and; that the revolution was more than a reaction to unpopular monarch. He then sets out to identify the long-term, underlying causes of the war and its more proximate catalysts. His discussion of the weak reach of the Tudor bureaucracy and its corresponding lack of credibility as a legal enforcer, and his discussion of the impact of Puritan thought are especially compelling. The first section of the book surveys the methodological issues involved in explaining revolution. This survey, though somewhat dated by now, still provides useful insights. And, he has a caustic eye for those of his colleagues who prefer an arid, artifically technical jargon over clarity and concise prose.