Steve Pincus . 1688: The First Modern Revolution . (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth‐Century Culture and History.) New Haven : Yale University Press . 2009 . Pp. xiii, 647. $40.00.

Abstract

Authorial views are often subordinated to publishing exigencies when blurbs are written, but these blurbs are significant because of what they say about the apparently desirable features of a work. The first three sentences of the cover copy of Steve Pincus's new book are as follows: “For two hundred years historians have viewed England's Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689 as an unrevolutionary revolution—bloodless, consensual, aristocratic, and above all, sensible. In this brilliant new interpretation Steve Pincus refutes this traditional view. By expanding the interpretive lens to include a broader geographical and chronological frame, Pincus demonstrates that England's revolution was a European event, that it took place over a number of years, not months, and that it had repercussions in India, North America, the West Indies, and throughout continental Europe.” Turning to the back, the encomia begin with Bernard Bailyn: “Pincus challenges Macaulay and the orthodox view that the Glorious Revolution was moderate, peaceful, and conservative and reveals a violent transformational event.” John Brewer discerns “a radical interpretation,” and Nigel Smith claims that “Pincus overturns many received views.”