Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: experience other than our own
- 1 The shape of the seventeenth century
- Part I England's troubles 1618–89: Political instability
- Part II The English Revolution 1640–89: Radical Imagination
- Part III Restoration 1660–1702: Reconstruction and Statebuilding
- Sources cited
- Index
Introduction: experience other than our own
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: experience other than our own
- 1 The shape of the seventeenth century
- Part I England's troubles 1618–89: Political instability
- Part II The English Revolution 1640–89: Radical Imagination
- Part III Restoration 1660–1702: Reconstruction and Statebuilding
- Sources cited
- Index
Summary
Once more I come before the public with a work on the history of a nation which is not mine by birth.
Leopold von Ranke, History of England (1875)As a foreigner, coming to the history of … Spain [from] … that of other West European societies, I was frequently struck by the extent to which … phenomena … assumed … to be … Spanish … could be found [elsewhere].
J. H. Elliott, National and Comparative History (1991)ALL HISTORY RESTS UPON ANALYTICAL ASSUMPTIONS, WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE MADE EXPLICIT
That the seventeenth-century English political experience was spectacular and remarkable may not require emphasis, either to historians or to general readers. A recent account begins accordingly by listing some of its extraordinary features. It then concludes: ‘No history can account for such dazzling achievements. It is perhaps as well to gaze upon so bright a firmament rather than to try to measure the gaseous compounds of each star.’ Thus did Lord Brooke write in The Nature of Truth (1640) of ‘leaving the search for causes to those who are content, with Icarus, to burn their wings at a fire too hot for them’.
There are few historians, particularly of the seventeenth century, who will not respect the prudence of this stance. We cannot account for everything, or anything with finality. Explanation presupposes an informed understanding of what it is we are attempting to explain. Moreover, explanation isn't everything. One of the most important features of history is its capacity to tell a story.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- England's TroublesSeventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context, pp. 1 - 19Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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