A Freeborn People: Politics and the Nation in Seventeenth-Century England.

Oxford, UK Oxford University: The Clarendon Press, 1996. Hardcover First Edition; First Printing indicated. Near Fine in Very Near Fine DJ: Both book and DJ show only minute indications of use. The Book shows the former owner's signature at the front and rear pastedown endpapers (under the DJ's flap; the binding shows slight lean, but remains perfectly secure; the text is clean. Theh DJ shows only the mildest rubbing; unclipped; mylar-protected. Overall, very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. 174pp. First Edition; First Printing indicated. Hardback with DJ. Written by one of the world's most distinguished historians of early modern history, A Freeborn People is a provocative exploration of the ways in which the political cultures of the elite and of the common people intersected during the seventeenth century. David Underdown shows that the two worlds were not as separate as historians have often thought them to be; English men and women of all social levels had similar expectations about good government and about the traditional liberties available to them under the "Ancient Constitution". Throughout the century, both levels of politics were also powerfully influenced by prevailing assumptions about gender roles, and, especially in the years before the civil wars, by fears that the country was threatened by evil forces of satanic inversion. This dramatic reinterpretation of the Stuart period, based on the author's acclaimed 1992 Ford Lectures, begins a new chapter in the continuing debate over the historical meaning of Britain's seventeenth-century revolutions.