Revolution
The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo
ISBN10: 1250765978
ISBN13: 9781250765970
Trade Paperback
416 Pages
$19.99
CA$26.99
In Revolution, Peter Ackroyd takes readers from William of Orange's accession following the Glorious Revolution to the Regency, when the flamboyant Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of his mad father, George III, and England was—again—at war with France, a war that would end with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
Late Stuart and Georgian England marked the creation of the great pillars of the English state. The Bank of England was founded, as was the stock exchange; the Church of England was fully established as the guardian of the spiritual life of the nation, and parliament became the sovereign body of the nation with responsibilities and duties far beyond those of the monarch. It was a revolutionary era in English letters, too, a time in which newspapers first flourished and the English novel was born. It was an era in which coffee houses and playhouses boomed, gin flowed freely, and in which shops, as we know them today, began to proliferate in towns and villages. But it was also a time of extraordinary and unprecedented technological innovation, which saw England utterly and irrevocably transformed from a country of blue skies and farmland to one of soot and steel and coal.
Ackroyd is the author of the first, second, and third volumes of his history of England, Foundation, Tudors, and Rebellion.
Reviews
Praise for Revolution
"Through it all, the author is a delightful guide. All chroniclers of popular history should be required to study Ackroyd's writing, his methodology, and the totality of his treatment of his subjects."—Kirkus Review (starred review)
“Ackroyd (Rebellion) continues his fast-paced overview of the tumultuous English monarchy with the fourth volume in the series, an account of the 'long 18th century' (1688–1815) that covers the evolution of literature, trade, technology, and politics . . . Ackroyd offers suitable background on the momentous events and key figures that helped create modern Britain.”—Publishers Weekly
Reviews from Goodreads
BOOK EXCERPTS
Read an Excerpt
1
What do you think of predestination now?
The king had fled, in the face of an invading army. Even though James II had reached the safety of France and William, prince of Orange, was ensconced in Whitehall, it was not at all clear...