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Overview
Historians writing in the nineteenth century about the Revolution of 1688-89 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 Such an interpretation now seems outdated, and a great deal of attention has been switched to the English revolution of the 1640's and 1650's on the grounds that developments in the earlier period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 those of the only other European state in which government depended on representative principles and practice--the Dutch Republic. The next two papers deal with the 1689 convention, summoned to secure liberties and rights which James II had tried to alter. Howard Nenner describes the significant change in the character (or tenure) of the rights of subjects vis a vis sovereigns, and John Miller shows how in many respects the Revolution settlement was a set of compromises that were illogical and, in the view of the radical Whigs, incomplete. Two sets of linked chapters examine areas of life in which the Revolution brought no formal securing of rights, freedom of the press and religious liberty. Lois G. Schwoerer considers the attitudes of successive governments toward the press up to the lapsing of the Licensing Act in 1695, and G. C. Gibbs describes what followed this end of prepublication cSynopsis
The essays in this volume do not claim that the Revolution of 1688-89 in itself constituted an epoch-making event in the history of progress and freedom. Instead, they argue that it marks an important conjunction of many trends, changes, and developments in the years before and after 1688.
Library Journal
The nine essays collected here, written by some of the most noted British and American authorities in the field of late 17th-century British history, make up the second volume in the ``The Making of Modern Freedom'' series. The Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 is presented not as a watershed but as a key stage in the ongoing emergence of a political concept of freedom. Collectively, the essays examine quite diverse aspects of the 1688-89 revolution--the role of the press, religious toleration, legal theory, new concepts of liberty, and areas where no new rights emerged. Perhaps the most useful piece in the collection, at least in a general sense, is the editor's look at English liberties and how they compared with those on the Continent. This is a solid work, albeit somewhat dry going, which belongs in collections strong in British history, legal theory, and political science.-- James A. Casada, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C.