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England's Culture Wars
- Puritan Reformation and It's Enemies in the Interregnum, 1649-1660
- Narrated by: Bruce Mann
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
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England's Culture Wars
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Summary
Following the execution of the king in 1649, the new Commonwealth and then Oliver Cromwell set out to drive forward a puritan reformation of manners. They wanted to reform the church and its services, enforce the Sabbath, suppress Christmas, and spread the gospel. They sought to impose a stern moral discipline to regulate and reform sexual behaviour, drinking practices, language, dress, and leisure activities ranging from music and plays to football.
England's Culture Wars explores how far this agenda could be enforced, especially in urban communities which offered the greatest potential to build a godly civic commonwealth. How far were local magistrates and ministers willing to cooperate, and what coercive powers did the regime possess to silence or remove dissidents? How far did the reformers themselves wish to go, and how did they reconcile godly reformation with the demands of decency and civility? Music and dancing lived on, in genteel contexts, early opera replaced the plays now forbidden, and puritans themselves were often fond of hunting and hawking. Bernard Capp explores the propaganda wars waged in press and pulpit, how energetically reformation was pursued, and how much or little was achieved. Many recent historians have dismissed interregnum reformation as a failure. He demonstrates that while the reforming drive varied enormously from place to place, its impact could be powerful. The book is therefore structured in three parts: setting out the reform agenda and challenges, surveying general issues and patterns, and finally offering a number of representative case-studies. It draws on a wide range of sources, including local and central government records, judicial records, pamphlets, sermons, newspapers, diaries, letters, and memoirs; and demonstrates how court records by themselves give us only a very limited picture of what was happening on the ground.
What listeners say about England's Culture Wars
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Stephen Gott
- 09-12-22
Fascinating History, A Dry Telling.
This brief period of the English Republic has always interested me, but it's a time in history that always seems to be forgotten. So, I was really looking forward to listening to this audio book. However, I found it a little bit too academic and the narration was very dry for me. That's not to say that the subject matter isn't of interest, it is ! It's just a hard listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter Daniel
- 23-12-21
Culture War classic
Bernard Capp masterly tells the story of the 17th centurt culture wars. A tale illuminating the present.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Dt Horan
- 19-07-16
Monotonous reader
How could the performance have been better?
I thought this must be a joke. It certainly isn't Bruce Mann the professional reader narrating this. I found it impossible to continue to listen to more than a few paragraphs because of the monotony of his intonation. What's going on here?
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- james palmer
- 08-09-14
fascinating
This is a well written book that I found both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. I personally found the narrator very fitting to the material.
This book could be used as a warning against allowing a minority in any society with extremely held views from being allowed to impose them on the whole
Enjoyed this very much
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sophisticate
- 28-05-21
Best survey of society during the Interregnum
Geographically diverse and detailed, drawing on primary sources and Capp’s long career, you get a strong understanding of the diversity and nuance of the attempted reformation of manners. Translates well to the new Woke Religion…
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jonathan Mark Sidaway
- 03-11-24
Fascinating.
When I compare with this the material available when I studied 17th c England 44 years ago! Worden, Capp, Reece, how wonderful they are to the good old cause of this most captivating period of our history.
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