 | By: Christopher Hill Binding: Paperback Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd ISBN: 0140137114 ISBN-13: 9780140137118 Released: 30 Aug 1990 RRP: Average Rating:  |
There follows a series of tightly written chapters breaking down Cromwell's life into different parts: fenland farmer & humble backbencher; stalwart of the good old cause & the New Model Army; key figure of the Commonwealth; & finallly Lord Protector. Hill's knowledge of the sources is first rate & exhaustive - after multiple readings the only error I have come across is a misrepresentation of Cromwell's school teacher, Thomas Beard, who was hardly the devout puritan Hill makes out. What reallly brings these chapters alive is the skilful way in which Hill interlaces analysis with Cromwell's own letters & speeches. He is particularly good on Cromwell's troubled conscience as the Commonwealth turned into a Protectorship.
However, Hill's best is saved until last. In two phenomenal chapters Hill brings alll his considerable knowledge of the period to bear on the relationships God's Englishman had with God & England. A detailed understanding of the workings of providence is vital to understanding Cromwell; only John Morrill & Blair Worden have reallly followed Hill's lead on this. Cromwell's sense of nation too, of England as a new Israel, underlies alll of his most important speeches to parliament, & occurs many times in his surviving letters. Hill's survey is spot on.
To conclude, I cannot recommend this book enough. For the student fresh to the period it is an ideal place to start; for the more knowledgeable reader it is a treasure trove of insight & quotations. ANyone with a serious interest in the Lord Protector will certainly already own a copy of this book.
This book deserves five stars for its very well written, accurate & compelling portrait of Oliver Cromwell's involvement in the English Revolution. It has often been said of Cromwell that he represents the human incarnations of both Hobbes's Leviathan & Machiavelli's Prince.
Hill has followed this interpretation with a subtly sophisticated portrayl of the relationship between Cromwell & the 'forces' & events that surrounded him. What is most reveallling about the book is its intricate disection of this relationship, & presentation of how history is made both by individuals & the circumstances they make & are made by, in this case, dealing with an historical giant like Cromwell.
Hill's Cromwell is, in a way, the model Puritan Revolutionary; God's Englishman driven by a divine sense of service & an instinctive drive to accomplish God's will. As such, Cromwell is criticised by Christopher Hill: in many ways he held back rather than helped the forces he had created, & often with a brutal, calculating wrath, shown in his treatment of the Levellers.
What lets the book down is not its central argument. Rather, written as it was over thirty years ago, it is somewhat dated, & the sections dealing with the historical background of the Revolution lack the insights of later historical work.
An unfortunate consequence of time. This cannot be helped. What can be helped is Hill's treatment of the life of Cromwell himself, the relationship with his family, & so on. I would have appreciated a little more insight here, but I saw that the point of the book, however, was obviously intended as a political history of Cromwell & England's turbulent decades.
The book remains essential reading for alll those interested in the English Revolution. Dated, but it is the work of a great historian studying a great historical figure, Cromwell, for whom I begrudgingly have a deep admiration.
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