A useful book which I believe was required reading for a course on Tudor and Stuart England I took some years ago. ( )

Points of interest:
Cromwell on Barebones Parliament: "I am more troubled now with the fool than with the knave."
First public concerts date from Restoration: violin was introduced then.
Re James II's three questions of 1687:
i) Documents are now in Bodleian
ii) The enquiry only showed the King's enemies how strong they were.
In Anne's reign real wages were higher than at any time since the reign of Henry VI.
Tory government took great trouble to get Asiento clause at Utrecht - shows Whigs weren't alone in their concern for trade.
Definitely the most disappointing volume of the series which I have read. The chapters on political history are dreary and uninspired - no attempt to highlight the significant points or clarify the chain of cause and effect. He seems to think that scholasticism and reason are mutually incompatible, and O.J.G. Welsh has pointed out in the Tablet how her has got the Secret Treaty of Dover all wrong. The most interesting chapter I found to be the one called 'A Ferment of Ideas 1640-60', which 'placed' for me a number of people whose importance had always been rather obscure - Chilligworth, the Cambridge Platonists, and Harrington, in particular.
(notes written 1954)

I love the feel of the 60s Pelican paperbacks, now that they are blue covered and yellow paged. This one was very in depth, covering the political background to the Civil War, as well as other social contexts of the time.

Comprehensive as far as I can tell! ( )

The Pelican History of England: 6