Author(s): Jonathan Healey

HISTORY

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, English politics centred on the king and the royal court. Ninety per cent of the population lived in the countryside, the vast majority was illiterate and famine and plague were regular scourges. However, by the turn of the eighteenth century, a new world had arisen. A world more familiar to our own: parliamentary politics, thriving arts and culture and even an embryonic welfare state. How did this happen? The story of this turbulent period is less well-known than it should be. Myths have grown around key figures; turning points like the Civil War are opaque for many. Yet the seventeenth century has never been more relevant. The British constitution is once again being bent and contorted, and there is a clash of ideologies reminiscent of when the Roundheads fought the Cavaliers. From raw politics to religious divisions, civil wars to witch trials, plague to press freedoms, The Blazing World is the story of a strange but fascinating century. Drawing on vast archives and his own expertise, Jonathan Healey portrays the lives not just of public figures but of ordinary people to illuminate a revolutionary society that forged a new world.