Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War charts the way the English civil war of the 1640s mutated into a revolution, in turn paving the way for the later execution of King Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy.
Focusing on parliament's most militant supporters, David Como reconstructs the origins and nature of the most radical forms of political and religious agitation that erupted during the war, tracing the process by which these forms gradually spread and gained broader acceptance. Drawing on a wide range of manuscript and print sources, the study situates these developments within a revised narrative of the period, revealing the emergence of new practices and structures for the conduct of politics. In the process, the book illuminates the eruption of many of the period's strikingly novel intellectual currents, including assumptions and practices we today associate with western representative democracy; notions of retained natural rights, religious toleration, freedom of the press, and freedom from arbitrary imprisonment. The study also chronicles the way that civil war shattered English protestantism - leaving behind myriad competing groupings, including congregationalists, baptists, antinomians, and others - while examining the relationship between this religious fragmentation and political change. It traces the gradual appearance of openly anti-monarchical, republican sentiment among parliament's supporters. Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War provides a new history of the English civil war, enhancing our understanding of the dramatic events of the 1640s, and shedding light on the long-term political and religious consequences of the conflict.
"Introduction Part I: From Personal Rule to Political Crisis, 1635-1642 1: Free born Subjects: Puritanism, Politics, and Print in the Personal Rule 2: Secret Printing and the Crisis of 1640: The Margery Mar-Prelate Press and Print in the Time of Parliament 3: The Rubble of Episcopacy: Parliament, Religious Mobilization, and the ""Generall Liberty"" of the Press, 1641 4: ""Extremities, Not Fit to be Named"": Crowds, Print, and Constitutional Improvisation Part II: Civil War, 1642-1643 5: ""Lawless Tyranny"" and ""Destructive Accommodation"": War and the Transformation of Politics, 1642-1643 6: Defining the Cause: The London Remonstrance, the General Rising, and Military Crisis 7: ""So Full of Novelties"": the Sectarian Slurry, Redistributionism, and the Licensing Ordinance Part III: War and Religion, 1643-1644 8: The Rise of Religious Conflict in the Parliamentarian Coalition 9: Print House, Petitions, and Provinces: Religious Politics, Toleration, and the Making of an ""Independent"" Coalition 10: The House of Stuart, the House of Lords, and the Politics of ""Independency"": Ideological Escalation in 1644 Part IV: Fragmentation and Victory, 1644-1645 11: Rumor Wars: Underground Print and the Coming of the New Model Army 12: Supremacy in the Commons: Partisan Politics, Political Innovation, and the Rise of Lilburne 13: White King, Black Cassock: Monarchy, Presbytery, and the Radical Propaganda Collective Part V: Paths to Revolution 14: Internal Revolutions: Private Meditations and Radical Parliamentarianism, 1642-1646 15: The Seeking Way: ""Forms of Religion"" and the Coming of the English Revolution 16: The Last Warning Conclusion Appendices"
David R. Como is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University. A member of the North American Conference on British Studies, as well as the Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies, he has also previously taught at both the University of Chicago and the University of Maryland.
Reviews for Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War
David Como's monograph is a stunning achievement. It is a landmark study of the roots, development and influence of radical parliamentarianism which opens up new avenues of research and builds imaginatively on recent scholarship in early modern political and religious history. Its ambition is considerable....Como has produced a magnificent work of erudite and eloquent historical scholarship which has profound implications for our understandings not only of the civil wars, but for seventeenth-century political history more broadly. * Lloyd Bowen, Cardiff University, EHR * It is a rich and important study and will become an established feature of the historiographical landscape. * Michael J. Braddick, The Seventeenth Century * The book I've most enjoyed recently is David Como's Radical Parliamentarians and the English Civil War. His extraordinary research reveals crucial radical networks, ultimately committed to religious liberty and popular sovereignty. * Ann Hughes, Times Higher Education *
- Winner of Joint Winner of the 2019 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies Book Prize Winner of the 2018 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies' Book Prize.
- Winner of Joint Winner of the 2019 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies Book Prize.
- Winner of Winner of the 2018 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies' Book Prize.
