Steve Pincus is professor of history at Yale University. He is the author of Protestantism and Patriotism and England's Glorious Revolution. He lives in New Haven, CT.
"Mr. Pincus’s cogently argued account of what really happened
during England’s revolution destroys many comforting notions that
have prevailed for more than 200 years. . . . It leaves the reader
with something much more exciting: a new understanding of the
origins of the modern, liberal state."—Economist
"Pincus’s marvellously learned book is the product of years of
industrious archival labour."—Jonathan Clark, Times Literary
Supplement
"A masterful reassessment of the received wisdom of what we
understand of modern British history and the concept of revolution.
This is a well-researched, well-written and important
book."—British Heritage
"This is an important book and deserves to be widely read . . .
What stands out in Pincus’s work is his comprehensive use of
manuscript sources and his determination to view events of 1688
afresh, these are the hallmarks of a true scholar . . . No
historian of the Glorious Revolution – or the regime it established
– will be able to overlook this remarkable work."—William Gibson,
Archives
"An engaging read . . . this book will unquestionably become a
major talking-point among all interested in Britain’s last
revolution."— Ted Vallance, BBC History Magazine
"In this brilliant and provocative book, Steve Pincus creates a
welcome stir that will enliven the study of the later 17th century
. . . The result is a bracing, combative, highly stimulating
argument, written in vivid and lively prose . . . A book that will
be difficult for any student of the 17th century or of the
revolutions to ignore."—Mark Knights, Reviews in History
"The result is a major contribution to our understanding of the
Revolution of 1688…It is the great strength of this book that it
addresses large and intractable issues with boldness, verve, and
argumentative charity."—Philip Connell, Notes and Queries
"Pincus’s argument is a fascinating one, his study packed full of
detail but never confusing or inaccessible."—Lesley McDowell, The
Herald (Glasgow)
"The sheer size of this impressively holistic study makes it hard
to digest at one sitting. 1688 is a book to revisit and reflect
upon, for there is so much to ponder here."—John Gibney, Journal of
Ecclesiastical History
Bronze Medal winner for the 2010 Independent Publishers Book Awards
in the History Category
Winner of the 2010 Gustav Ranis International Book Prize, given by
the MacMillan Center
Honorable Mention in the Non-Fiction category of the 2009 New
England Book Festival sponsored by the Larimar St. Croix Writers
Colony, The Hollywood Creative Directory; eDivvy, Shopanista and
Westside Websites
A finalist in the category of Nonfiction for the 2010 Connecticut
Book Award, given by the Connecticut Center for the Book
Winner of the 2010 Morris D. Forkosch Prize given by the American
Historical Association
"Utterly extraordinary."—Don Herzog, University of Michigan
"We all know that the year 1688 is a milestone in England's
history; now, thanks to Steve Pincus, the book 1688 will be a
milestone in its historiography. Pincus transforms what once
seemed a peaceful compromise among agreeable aristocrats into a
fractious and all-encompassing crisis, the ‘first modern
revolution.’ Provocative, erudite, and accessible, 1688 is a must
read for anyone interested in seventeenth-century Europe and its
possessions."—Cynthia Herrup, University of Southern California
"In this remarkable work of scholarship, vast in scope and profound
in its implications, Pincus challenges Macaulay and the orthodox
view that the Glorious Revolution was moderate, peaceful, and
conservative, and reveals a violent transformational event that
revolutionized England's state, church, and political economy, and
introduced political modernity."—Bernard Bailyn, Harvard
University
"A radical interpretation of a radical revolution. Steve
Pincus's brilliantly researched account of the extraordinary events
of the 1680s and 1690s mounts an insuperable challenge to the
comfortable view that the Glorious Revolution was another instance
of British consensus politics, pragmatism, and common
sense. 1688 recaptures the revolutionary nature of the
Glorious Revolution and its far-reaching and interconnected
conflicts over foreign policy, political economy, religion, and the
nature of the modern state."—John Brewer, California Institute of
Technology
"A magnificent, fully documented, very well written study of how
the first thorough-going modern revolution was achieved with effort
and against substantial obstacles over several years. It was
bloody and popular, not merely a palace coup achieved with little
loss of life, as is commonly held. Taking a broader
chronological view and considering more aspects of society than
previous historians, Pincus convincingly shows how England had
become a commercial society by the 1680s, and the race was on to
harness new wealth—a race between the absolutist modernizing vision
of James II and the more tolerant and liberty-minded vision of his
opponents. What emerged was the first modern state, with
independent financial institutions and a strong sense of national
and civil, as opposed to confessional, interest. The triumph
of William III and his supporters was a conscious re-ordering of
the place of the three kingdoms on the European and world
stage. Pincus's commitment to vigorous argument (in which he
overturns many received views; his definition of revolution itself
is bracingly refreshing) makes this book exciting reading, and will
raise fascinated interest in the late 17th-century for many years
to come. For anyone interested in modern liberal society, its
origins, and why it is worth defending, this book is
indispensable."—Nigel Smith, Princeton University
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