Understanding popular violence in the English Revolution
Subtitle: the Colchester plunderers
By: John Walter.
Series: Past and present publications
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 357
Subjects: Political violence -- England -- Colchester Region -- History -- 17th century.; Social conflict -- England -- Colchester Region -- History -- 17th century.; Pillage -- England -- Colchester Region -- History -- 17th century.; Riots -- England -- Colchester Region -- History -- 17th century.; Great Britain -- History -- Puritan Revolution, 1642-1660 -- Destruction and pillage.; Stour Valley (Essex and Suffolk, England) -- History.; Cochester Region (England) -- History.
Description: This is a critical re-evaluation of one of the best-known episodes of crowd action in the English Revolution, in which crowds in their thousands invaded and plundered the houses of the landed classes. The so-called Stour Valley riots have become accepted as the paradigm of class hostility, determining plebeian behaviour within the Revolution. An exercise in micro-history, the book questions this dominant reading by trying to understand the interrelated contexts of local responses to the political and religious counterrevolution of the 1630s and the confessional politics of the early 1640s.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.