John Morrill

There are few figures in English history as controversial as Oliver Cromwell. Born a member of the lower English gentry, he embraced Puritanism as a young man and won election to the “Long Parliament” in 1640. During the English Civil War he distinguished himself in military commands, and steadily rose to become second-in-command of the Parliamentary forces by the end of the conflict. Successful campaigns in Scotland and Ireland propelled him to the leadership of the English Republic. Though he refused the crown, he governed as Lord Protector until his death in 1658 created a vacuum that led to the restoration of the Stuart dynasty two years later.

Though Cromwell has been the subject of numerous biographies, John Morrill’s book offers a concise assessment of Cromwell’s life and legacy. Taken from the entry Morrill wrote on Cromwell for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, it offers a good introduction to Cromwell’s life by a leading scholar of the period. His section on Cromwell’s ever-evolving reputation is particularly enlightening, offering his learned assessment of the many works on the Lord Protector. These qualities make this book a good starting point for anyone curious about Cromwell, as well as an excellent guide for further study of the man and his times.… (mere)

It does what it says on the tin, though for "Stuart Britain", read the Civil War. It did help me get a handle on the basics of the politics at the time (Irish secondary school history mostly deals with this period from the perspective of "That Cromwell, what a bastard", which I can't necessarily disagree with), but less so when it came to the people who inhabited Stuart Britain. For something published in 2000, this still hews very much to the Great Man school of history—emphasis on the male, for women show up hardly at all.… (mere)