English Civil Wars 1640-1660

As an introduction to the English civil wars, Worden's book is peerless. Brief, though it is, it is a work of exceptionally large achievement―THE SPECTATOR

An exemplary piece of popular history... opening up perhaps the most important national story to the nation, passionately retold yet unadorned ... If you want to be informed about that unfortunate period of English history, Blair Worden's crisp 160-pager may well be the best place to start―Nicholas Bagnal, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

One of the most renowned historians of the English Civil War has written a crisp and lucid narrative of the complicated events of 1640 to 1660—not just the war between King and Parliament of 1642-46 but the second civil war, the execution of King Charles I, the rule of Cromwell, and finally the restoration of the monarchy. Blair Worden gets behind the preoccupations of later generations and explains what contemporaries on both sides thought they were fighting for and against.