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God's Fury, England's Fire: A New History Of The English Civil Wars (2009)

by Michael Braddick(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0141008970 (ISBN13: 9780141008974)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Penguin Global

review 1: One of the few books I've not only failed to finish, I've struggled to get started with. I'm not sure what in particular pushed back against me as I read this, but I only managed to get to page 158. It is highly academic in tone and didn't seem to highlight the importance of events beforehand, drily detailing the religious core of the war. I wondered for a long time whether the subject itself was too complex to properly write about, but have since found far more engaging books that bring this fantastic story to light.
review 2: It's hard to do justice to the complexity of the book. It is the first one I've read that focused more on politics than on religion. Though it starts with religious rebellions in Scotland and Ireland, these rebellions had political a... mores well as religious results. Braddick shows how England drifted into war or as he says "the war was starting with a series of whimpers rather than a bang..." He also shows how confused it all was "on the ground" with people varying in responses even with themselves. "Fear of popery," writes Braddick, "was juxtaposed to fear of religious and social anarchy. The really pernicious thing about these concerns was, of course, that it was possible to be equally worried by them all: the real political failure of the Long Parliament lay in the fact that they came to be seen as alternatives." He points to the same issue with the prerogatives of Parliament and of the King with people being forced to choose between two things that could have coexisted. One thing to remember is that there were not just two "sides" in these wars. The New Model Army ended up in opposition to the Parliament. Covenanters in Scotland and their sympathizing Presbyterians in England were disliked by others who felt that Presbyterianism was replacing one pope with many. The people who lost the most, I think, besides the Royalists and Charles himself were the Catholic Irish. Accused of atrocities they were the victims of it during the Civil Wars with surrendering soldiers and their camp followers (including women) being frequently massacred if they were thought to be Irish. Overall an excellent look at the complexities of the wars. less

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