Stuart Britain: A Very Short Introduction by John Morrill

Stuart Britain: A Very Short Introduction
by John Morrill

Sometimes I'll go out and grab a short synthesist study just to get caught up with recent research. Then again this thing is from 2000 so maybe so not much with the whole up to date thing. In any event as the title suggests it covers the Stuart control of Britain and the Civil War.

It's mostly done in sections based on the Monarch at the time. Leading off with a Section that covers economics and demographics. Which in many respects was the most interesting part of the book. The discussion of the slowdown in population growth and stresses that put on the economy.

Perhaps surprisingly for a book written at the beginning of the 21st century mostly holds onto the big man view of history. As far as discussion of social movements go it's pretty much limited to the religious controversies that popped up. More space is given over to the monarchs and their leadership styles.

Coverage of the Civil War is brief but brings up a few points that I hadn't considered. The fighting was limited geographically. That many areas pretty much stayed neutral even if they officially endorsed one side or the other.

Is typical for these volumes there's a further reading section of a couple of pages.

Recommended though it's probably out of date.