The essays have been carefully revised, a new introduction glues them together, and a meticulously comprehensive index makes for easy cross referencing. Much scholarship is paraded here ... insights and pithy verdicts abound. [Worden] writes in a gently argumentative way, engaging with other historians without being brutal or belittling. * R. C Richardson, Times Higher Education * a coherence that sheds so much light on Cromwell's reign that it dazzles ... quite simply indispensable. * Adrian Tinniswood, Literary Review * The resulting volume will of course be indispensable for fellow specialists; but it also offers a fine introduction, for the general reader, to some of the best modern historical thinking on the political and mental worlds of the Cromwellian era. * Noel Malcolm, Standpoint * It is a collection which deserves to be and will be ... treasured, and revisited for its salutary and important wisdom. * Professor Martyn Bennett, Reviews in History * this is a vibrant and compelling examination of the (religiously informed and shaped) government and politics of the English republic and of its charismatic leading figure, Oliver Cromwell. * Peter Gaunt, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *