"The best and most reliable guide to the English Revolution for the general reader."--New York Review of Books "While Aylmer's narrative provides an intelligible overview of this complex period, incorporating a good deal of recent research without being overly detailed, the primary value of the work lies in the author's periodic forays into the logic of historical explanation together with his attempts to locate the narrative in the web of historiographical controversies that continue to animate the study of this period."--Journal of Modern History "Based on an impressive mastery of the rich body of primary sources....A thoroughly useful contribution."--American Historical Review "Certainly the best short account that we have of a traumatic twenty years in English history."--Times Literary Supplement "Among historians at present in the field, there is none with a more essentially judicial mind than Professor Aylmer, and it is hard to think of anyone more capable of describing controversies in a way which is accurate and impartial."--London Review of Books