Download or read book The Making of Oliver Cromwell written by Ronald Hutton and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first volume in a pioneering account of Oliver Cromwell--providing a major new interpretation of one of the greatest figures in history Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)--the only English commoner to become the overall head of state--is one of the great figures of history, but his character was very complex. He was at once courageous and devout, devious and self-serving; as a parliamentarian, he was devoted to his cause; as a soldier, he was ruthless. Cromwell's speeches and writings surpass in quantity those of any other ruler of England before Victoria and, for those seeking to understand him, he has usually been taken at his word. In this remarkable new work, Ronald Hutton untangles the facts from the fiction. Cromwell, pursuing his devotion to God and cementing his Puritan support base, quickly transformed from obscure provincial to military victor. At the end of the first English Civil War, he was poised to take power. Hutton reveals a man who was both genuine in his faith and deliberate in his dishonesty--and uncovers the inner workings of the man who has puzzled biographers for centuries.
Download or read book The Mirror the Light written by Hilary Mantel and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 831 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brilliant #1 New York Times bestseller Named a best book of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Guardian, and many more With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage. The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to the breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze? Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell’s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
Download or read book Wolf Hall written by Hilary Mantel and published by HarperCollins Canada. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his advisor, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum and a deadlock. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. The son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a bully and a charmer, Cromwell has broken all the rules of a rigid society in his rise to power. Narrowly escaping personal disaster—the loss of his young family and of Wolsey, his beloved patron—he picks his way deftly through a court where “man is wolf to man.” Pitting himself against parliament, the political establishment and the papacy, he is prepared to reshape England to his own and Henry’s desires. In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. Wolf Hall re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hair’s breadth, where success brings unlimited power, but a single failure means death.
Download or read book Providence Lost written by Paul Lay and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A compelling and wry narrative of one of the most intellectually thrilling eras of British history' Guardian. ***************** SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020 England, 1651. Oliver Cromwell has defeated his royalist opponents in two civil wars, executed the Stuart king Charles I, laid waste to Ireland, and crushed the late king's son and his Scottish allies. He is master of Britain and Ireland. But Parliament, divided between moderates, republicans and Puritans of uncompromisingly millenarian hue, is faction-ridden and disputatious. By the end of 1653, Cromwell has become 'Lord Protector'. Seeking dragons for an elect Protestant nation to slay, he launches an ambitious 'Western Design' against Spain's empire in the New World. When an amphibious assault on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1655 proves a disaster, a shaken Cromwell is convinced that God is punishing England for its sinfulness. But the imposition of the rule of the Major-Generals – bureaucrats with a penchant for closing alehouses – backfires spectacularly. Sectarianism and fundamentalism run riot. Radicals and royalists join together in conspiracy. The only way out seems to be a return to a Parliament presided over by a king. But will Cromwell accept the crown? Paul Lay narrates in entertaining but always rigorous fashion the story of England's first and only experiment with republican government: he brings the febrile world of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate to life, providing vivid portraits of the extraordinary individuals who inhabited it and capturing its dissonant cacophony of political and religious voices. ***************** Reviews: 'Briskly paced and elegantly written, Providence Lost provides us with a first-class ticket to this Cromwellian world of achievement, paradox and contradiction. Few guides take us so directly, or so sympathetically, into the imaginative worlds of that tumultuous decade' John Adamson, The Times. 'Providence Lost is a learned, lucid, wry and compelling narrative of the 1650s as well as a sensitive portrayal of a man unravelled by providence' Jessie Childs, Guardian.
Download or read book The English Civil War written by Maurice Ashley and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 1922 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cromwell s Legacy written by Jane A. Mills and published by . This book was released on 2017-06-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, Cromwell's Legacy is an exciting collection of essays by scholars who are well-known in their fields of research, most of whom have a proven track record of making their scholarship accessible to a wide student and general readership. This study examines different ways in which Cromwell's life and work impacted on Britain and the rest of the world after his death. Each contributor examines Cromwell's legacy, including not only the important central question of Cromwell's impact on the religious, military and political life of Britain after his death but also Britain's relations with Europe and future developments in both North and South America. The structure of this book has been designed to give as wide a coverage of time and place as possible. This book not only sheds light on an aspect of Cromwellian studies that has been comparatively neglected, it will also stimulate further work on this topic.
Download or read book The Embalmed Head of Oliver Cromwell written by Marc Hartzman and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-15 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oliver Cromwell led the charge in the beheading of England's King Charles I in 1649. But little did he know that his own head would soon roll. And roll and roll-for the next three hundred years across the Commonwealth. This memoir recounts its journey through the centuries (1661-1960), all told from the head's perspective.
Download or read book Thomas Cromwell written by Tracy Borman and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An exceptional and compelling biography about one of the Tudor Age’s most complex and controversial figures.” —Alison Weir Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. As King Henry VIII’s right-hand man, Cromwell was the architect of the English Reformation; secured Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and plotted the downfall of his second wife, Anne Boleyn; and was fatally accused of trying to usurp the king himself. In this engrossing biography, acclaimed British historian Tracy Borman reveals a different side to one of history’s most notorious characters: that of a caring husband and father, a fiercely loyal servant and friend, and a revolutionary who was key in transforming medieval England into a modern state. Thomas Cromwell was at the heart of the most momentous events of his time—from funding the translation and dissemination of the first vernacular Bible to legitimizing Anne Boleyn as queen—and wielded immense power over both church and state. The impact of his seismic political, religious, and social reforms can still be felt today. Grounded in excellent primary source research, Thomas Cromwell gives an inside look at a monarchy that has captured the Western imagination for centuries and tells the story of a controversial and enigmatic man who forever changed the shape of his country. “An intelligent, sympathetic, and well researched biography.” —The Wall Street Journal “Borman unravels the story of Cromwell’s rise to power skillfully . . . If you want the inside story of Thomas Cromwell . . . this is the book for you.” —The Weekly Standard “An engrossing biography. . . . A fine rags-to-riches-to-executioner’s-block story of a major figure of the English Reformation.” —Kirkus Reviews “An insightful biography of a much-maligned historical figure.” —Booklist
Download or read book Extraterritorial written by Matthew Hart and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The future of fiction is neither global nor national. Instead, Matthew Hart argues, it is trending extraterritorial. Extraterritorial spaces fall outside of national borders but enhance state power. They cut across geography and history but do not point the way to a borderless new world. They range from the United Nations headquarters and international waters to CIA black sites and the departure zones at international airports. The political geography of the present, Hart shows, has come to resemble a patchwork of such spaces. Hart reveals extraterritoriality’s centrality to twenty-first-century art and fiction. He shows how extraterritorial fictions expose the way states construct “global” space in their own interests. Extraterritorial novels teach us not to mistake cracks or gradations in political geography for a crisis of the state. Hart demonstrates how the unstable character of many twenty-first-century aesthetic forms can be traced to the increasingly extraterritorial nature of contemporary political geography. Discussing writers such as Margaret Atwood, J. G. Ballard, Amitav Ghosh, Chang-rae Lee, Hilary Mantel, and China Miéville, as well as artists like Hito Steyerl and Mark Wallinger, Hart combines lively critical readings of contemporary novels with historical and theoretical discussions about sovereignty, globalization, cosmopolitanism, and postcolonialism. Extraterritorial presents a new theory of literature that explains what happens when dreams of an open, connected world confront the reality of mobile, elastic, and tenacious borders.
Download or read book Cromwell written by Antonia Fraser and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the life, personality, and career of Oliver Cromwell as the Lord Protector of Great Britain from 1649-1660.
Download or read book Unveiled Voices Unvarnished Memories written by Adelaide M. Cromwell and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When an industrious slave named Willis Hodges Cromwell earned the money to obtain liberty for his wife-who then bought freedom for him and for their children-he set in motion a family saga that resounds today. His youngest son, John Wesley Cromwell, became an educator, lawyer, and newspaper publisher-and one of the most influential men of letters in the generation that bridged Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Du Bois. Now, in Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories, his granddaughter, Adelaide M. Cromwell, documents the journey of her family from the slave marts of Annapolis to achievements in a variety of learned professions. John W. Cromwell began the family archives from which this book is drawn-letters and documents that provide an unprecedented view of how one black family thought, strived, and survived in American society from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. These papers reflect intimate thoughts about such topics as national and local leaders, moral behavior, color consciousness, and the challenges of everyday life in a racist society. They also convey a wealth of rich insights on the burdens that black parents' demands for achievement placed on their children, the frequently bitter rivalries within the intellectual class of the African American community, and the negative impact on African American women of sexism in a world dominated by black men whose own hold on respect was tentative at best. The voices gathered here give readers an inside look at the formation and networks of the African American elite, as John Cromwell forged friendships with such figures as journalist John E. Bruce and the Reverend Theophilus Gould Steward. Letters with those two faithfully depict the forces that shaped the worldview of the small but steadily expanding community of African American intellectuals who helped transform the nation's attitudes and policies on race, and whose unguarded comments on a wide range of matters will be of particular interest to social historians. Additional correspondence between John and his son, John Jr., brings the family story into modern times. Unveiled Voices, Unvarnished Memories is a rare look at the public and private world of individuals who refused to be circumscribed by racism and the ghetto while pursuing their own well-being. Its narrative depth breaks new ground in African American history and offers a unique primary source for that community.
Download or read book God s Englishman written by Christopher Hill and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic, bestselling biography of one of the most controversial figures in British history from 'One of the finest historians of the age' The Times Literary Supplement From Fenland farmer and humble backbencher to stalwart of the good old cause and the New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell became the key figure of the Commonwealth, and ultimately Lord Protector. In this fascinating and insightful biography, Christopher Hill reveals Cromwell's life from his beginnings in Huntingdonshire to his brutal end. Hill brings all his considerable knowledge of the period to bear on the relationships God's Englishman had with God and England, giving an unprecedented insight vital to understanding Cromwell.
Download or read book Bring Up the Bodies written by Hilary Mantel and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize Winner of the 2012 Costa Book of the Year Award The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice. At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne's head? Bring Up the Bodies is one of The New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2012, one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Best Books of 2012 and one of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2012
Download or read book Thomas Cromwell written by Robert Hutchinson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The son of a brewer, Thomas Cromwell rose from obscurity to become the confidant of the King and one of the most influ ential men in British history. Cromwell drafted the law that allowed Henry VIII to divorce his first wife and marry Anne Boleyn, setting into motion the brutal Pro testant Reformation. Over the course of his career, Cromwell amassed a fortune through bribery and theft, and created many enemies along the way. His fall was spectacular—beheaded out side the Tower of London, his boiled head was placed on a spike above the London Bridge. Rich in incident and colorful detail, this is narrative history at its finest.
Download or read book The Ideological Origins of American Federalism written by Alison L. LaCroix and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Federalism is regarded as one of the signal American contributions to modern politics. Its origins are typically traced to the drafting of the Constitution, but the story began decades before the delegates met in Philadelphia. In this groundbreaking book, Alison LaCroix traces the history of American federal thought from its colonial beginnings in scattered provincial responses to British assertions of authority, to its emergence in the late eighteenth century as a normative theory of multilayered government. The core of this new federal ideology was a belief that multiple independent levels of government could legitimately exist within a single polity, and that such an arrangement was not a defect but a virtue. This belief became a foundational principle and aspiration of the American political enterprise. LaCroix thus challenges the traditional account of republican ideology as the single dominant framework for eighteenth-century American political thought. Understanding the emerging federal ideology returns constitutional thought to the central place that it occupied for the founders. Federalism was not a necessary adaptation to make an already designed system work; it was the system. Connecting the colonial, revolutionary, founding, and early national periods in one story reveals the fundamental reconfigurations of legal and political power that accompanied the formation of the United States. The emergence of American federalism should be understood as a critical ideological development of the period, and this book is essential reading for everyone interested in the American story.
Download or read book The Great Godden written by Meg Rosoff and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We Were Liars meets Call Me By Your Name in this lyrical and quintessential coming-of-age tale about a summer when everything changes, from Meg Rosoff, bestselling author of the iconic novel How I Live Now. This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer. . . . In a holiday house by the sea, our watchful narrator sees everything, including many things they shouldn't, as their brother and sisters, parents and older cousins fill hot days with wine and games and planning a wedding. Enter two brothers: irresistible, charming, languidly sexy Kit and surly, silent Hugo. Suddenly there's a serpent in this paradise -- and the consequences will be devastating.
Download or read book Oliver Cromwell written by Cicely V. Wedgwood and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: