Description
Historians writing in the nineteenth century about the Revolution of 1688-1689 presented it as an event of central importance in the history not only of Britain but of the whole world. Such an interpretation now seems outdated, and a great deal of attention has been switched to the English revolution of the 1640's and 1650's on the grounds that developments in the earlier period possess much wider and more fundamental significance. The authors of the nine essays in this volume, the second in the series The Making of Modern Freedom, do not claim that the Revolution of 1688-89 in itself constituted an epoch-making event in an unfolding history of progress and freedom. They see the Revolution as a stage - although an important stage with many and long-term effects - in the processes of change that were affecting virtually all aspects of English life in the last decades of the seventeenth century. It marked a conjunction of many trends, changes, and developments in the years before and after 1688. J. R. Jones begins the volume with a comparative examination of English liberties with government depended on representative principles and practice - the Dutch Republic.
