Rebellion

The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution

By: Peter Ackroyd

Narrated by: Clive Chafer

Peter Ackroyd has been praised as one of the greatest living chroniclers of Britain and its people. In Rebellion, he continues his dazzling account of the history of England, beginning the progress south of the Scottish king James VI, who on the death of Elizabeth I became the first Stuart king of England, and ending with the deposition and flight into exile of his grandson James II.

The Stuart monarchy brought together the two nations of England and Scotland into one realm, albeit a realm still marked by political divisions that echo to this day. More importantly perhaps, the Stuart era was marked by the cruel depredations of civil war and the killing of a king. Shrewd and opinionated, James I was eloquent on matters as diverse as theology, witchcraft, and the abuses of tobacco, but his attitude to the English parliament sowed the seeds of the division that would split the country during the reign of his hapless heir, Charles I. Ackroyd offers a brilliant, warts-and-all portrayal of Charles's nemesis, Oliver Cromwell, Parliament's great military leader and England's only dictator, who began his career as apolitical liberator but ended it as much of a despot as "that man of blood," the king he executed.

England's turbulent seventeenth century is vividly laid out before us, but so too is the cultural and social life of the period, notable for its extraordinarily rich literature, including Shakespeare's late masterpieces, Jacobean tragedy, the poetry of John Donne and Milton, and Thomas Hobbes's great philosophical treatise, Leviathan. Rebellion also gives us a very real sense of the lives of ordinary English men and women, lived out against a backdrop of constant disruption and uncertainty.

©2014 Peter Ackroyd (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

An excellent book

This book on English History my Peter Ackroyd is excellent. I am currently trying to read through most of his volumes on English History. It is a favorite topic of mine. I highly recommend it to others.

Soporific reader

This is a readily accessible account of a complicated historical period in England, covering roughly the entire 1600s.

Unfortunately, the reader made it hard to keep paying attention. He read as though he were reading the news, with every sentence sounding the same. Good Scottish accent for King James, though.

Good History. So-So Reading.

The history recounted here is typically Ackroyd: thorough, meticulous, engaging. This edition suffers from a rather flat reading. There is little variation in tone, pace, or emphasis throughout the entire book. One senses that the reader was not that personally engaged in the content, and was simply earning his keep,

An exciting and revealing book

An exciting story that reveals the birth pangs of the rights of the people of England, and by extension, of the United States

I love history as it sheds light on the future.

From "Good King James" (Who wasn't as good as he's remembered) to the removal of James II in the same Glorious Revolution (aka Bloodless Revolution) this is a worthwhile book.