Society and Puritanism in Pre-revolutionary England

By Christopher Hill

How Puritanism made modern Britain

In order to understand the English Revolution and Civil War, it is essential to get a grasp on the nature of Puritanism. In this classic work of social history, Christopher Hill reveals Puritanism as a living faith, one responding to social as well as religious needs. It was a set of beliefs that answered the hopes and fears of yeomen and gentlemen, as well as merchants and artisans, in a time of tribulation and extraordinary turbulence. Over this period, Puritanism was interwoven into daily life. Here Hill looks at how rituals and practices such as oath-taking, the Sabbath, bawdy courts, and poor relief offered a way to bring order to social upheaval. He even offers an explanation for the emergence of the seemingly paradoxical figure of the age—the Puritan revolutionary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781786636225

Christopher Hill

Christopher Hill has written about rock and roll music in the pages of Spin, Record Magazine, International Musician, Chicago Magazine, Downbeat, Deep Roots Magazine, and other national and regional publications. His work has been anthologized in The Rolling Stone Record Review, and he is the author of Holidays and Holy Nights. Currently a contributing editor at Deep Roots Magazine, he lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Reviews for Society and Puritanism in Pre-revolutionary England

[mermaidatheart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Never has the Alaskan winter been portrayed so warmly as it is in The Snow Child, a fairy tale-cum-survival story that manages to be both sweepingly epic and cozily self-contained. Mabel and Jack's faltering marriage is typical without being sterotypical, and there are just enough other characters moving at the periphery to keep the story interesting without being cluttered. Faina, the child of the title, remains as maddeningly mysterious at the end as she was on page one. The reader thus concludes the real story was not where she came from or what she really was, but the effect she had on the people around her. If you can stand a little frustration of the what-the-heck? variety, sip (or gulp) this book like you would a cup of chocolate on a cold day.