Peregrine Books Series

Society and Puritanism in Pre-revolutionary England

by Christopher Hill

Published December 1964

To understand the English (or Puritan) Revolution and Civil War, the struggles which tore England apart in the mid 17th century, one needs to understand Puritanism. This book cuts through the misconceptions to show Puritanism as a living faith answering the hopes and fears of yeomen and gentlemen, merchants and artisans. Professor Hill looks at all the major i ssues of the time - oath-taking and the Sabbath, bawdy courts and poor relief - and considers Puritan stress on the household (rather that the parish) and the dignity of labour. The author also wrote "The World Upside Down".

Puritanism and Revolution

by Christopher Hill

Published October 1968

Peregrine Books

The World Turned Upside Down

by Christopher Hill

Published 11 December 1972

'His finest work and one that was both symptom and engine of the concept of "history from below" ... Here Levellers, Diggers, Ranters, Muggletonians, the early Quakers and others taking advantage of the collapse of censorship to bid for new kinds of freedom were given centre stage ... Hill lives on' Times Higher Education

In 'The World Turned Upside Down' Christopher Hill studies the beliefs of such radical groups as the Diggers, the Ranters, the Levellers and others, and the social and emotional impulses that gave rise to them. The relations between rich and poor classes, the part played by wandering 'masterless' men, the outbursts of sexual freedom, the great imaginative creations of Milton and Bunyan - these and many other elements build up into a marvellously detailed and coherent portrait of this strange, sudden effusion of revolutionary beliefs.

'Established the concept of an "English Revolution" every bit as significant and potentially as radical as its French and Russian equivalents' Daily Telegraph

'Brilliant ... marvellous erudition and sympathy' David Caute, New Statesman

'This book will outlive our time and will stand as a notable monument to the man, the committed radical scholar, and one of the finest historians of the age' The Times Literary Supplement

'The dean and paragon of English historians' E.P. Thompson

God's Englishman

by Christopher Hill

Published 27 April 1972

This is the classic life of Cromwell by one of the great radical historians of the English Civil War

'A triumph of complex interpretation and delicious prose ... Hill introduced nuance into the character of Cromwell and the nature of his revolution ... the finest of guides to the man of the times' Tristram Hunt, Guardian

'A humane and imaginative book by a historian writing at the peak of his powers' Ivan Roots, Daily Telegraph

'This is the most intelligent summation we have on Cromwell, and it is written with the grace and power we have come to expect from Hill' J. P. Kenyon, Observer

'One of the finest historians of the age' The Times Literary Supplement

'The dean and paragon of English historians' E.P. Thompson