This illuminating collection of essays assesses the seventeenth century, interpreting what used to be called "The Puritan Revolution, " the ideas that helped to produce it and resulted from it, and the relation between these ideas and the political and economic events of the day. Each essay approaches the subject from a different angle, looking at aspects of the revolution - whether religious, constitutional, economic, or biographical - in conjunction with a lively sympathy for the people who lived in that revolutionary time. Analyzing the writings of Marvell, Hobbes, Harrington, and Samuel Richardson, as well as less "respectable" writers, Professor Hill examines the legacy of the Reformation and the inspiration provided by ideals such as the Brotherhood of Man and the desire to recreate a pre-Norman Golden Age.