17th Century

Tulipmania 10% off

Goldgar, Anne Normal price £17.00 — Discount price £15.30 — You save £1.70  <convert> 

In the 1630s, the Netherlands was gripped by tulipmania, a speculative fever unprecedented in scale and, as popular history would have it, folly. We all know the outline of the story - how otherwise sensible merchants, nobles, and artisans spent all they had (and much that they didn't) on tulip bulbs. We have heard how these bulbs changed hands hundreds of times in a single day, and how some bulbs, sold and resold for thousands of guilders, never even existed. "Tulipmania" is seen as an example of the gullibility of crowds and the dangers of financial speculation. But it wasn't like that. As Anne Goldgar reveals in "Tulipmania", not one of these stories is true. Making use of extensive archival research, she lays waste to the legends, revealing that while the 1630s did see a speculative bubble in tulip prices, neither the height of the bubble nor its bursting were anywhere near as dramatic as we tend to think. By clearing away the accumulated myths, Goldgar is able to show us instead the far more interesting reality: the ways in which tulipmania reflected deep anxieties about the transformation of Dutch society in the Golden Age.

Daily Life in Stuart England 10% off

Forgeng, Jeffrey Normal price £27.95 — Discount price £25.16 — You save £2.80  <convert> 

Stuart England was a society undergoing rapid transformation, as living standards rose, and a growing proportion of the population was living in urban areas. It was also a time of war, revolution, plague and religious conflict. The age is remembered for notable figures such as Oliver Cromwell, Isaac Newton, and Samuel Pepys, but what was life like for ordinary people during such tumultuous events as the Civil War, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire of London? The author brings life in seventeenth-century England alive for students and general readers alike. Chapters devoted to the course of life and cycles of time; the living environment; clothing and accoutrements; food and drink; and entertainments detail the day-to-day lives of those living in Stuart England, while the role of women; religion; science and technology; the military; and trade and economy are also explored.

Stolen Village 10% off

Ekin, Des Normal price £10.99 — Discount price £9.89 — You save £1.10  <convert> 

In June 1631, pirates from Algiers and armed troops of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, stormed ashore at the little harbour village of Baltimore in West Cork. They captured almost all the villagers and bore them away to a life of slavery in North Africa. Some prisoners were destined to live out their days as galley slaves, while others would spend long years in the seclusion of the harem or within the walls of the Sultan's palace. Only two of them ever saw Ireland again. Here is the remarkable tale of a harrowing historical event known as 'The Sack of Baltimore'.

Noble Revolt 15% off

Adamson, John Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £21.25 — You save £3.75  <convert> 

John Adamson traces the careers and fortunes of the small group of noblemen who risked their lives and fortunes to challenge Charles I's attempt to refashion his three kingdoms as an authoritarian monarchy. Beginning with a core of little more than a dozen, this aristocratic leadership exploited a contemporary rebellion against Charles's rule in Scotland to create an entirely new political order in England: an essentially republican state in which executive power was monopolized by a small cartel of noblemen, answerable to Parliament, and where the monarch was permanently reduced to the status of a figurehead king.

In a Free Republic 15% off

Plowden, Alison Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £17.00 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

This is a study of life during the Interregnum: the unique period in England's history, when it was a commonwealth, from 1649-1660. During this time, the House of Lords was abolished along with the monarchy, the Anglican church was in eclipse and the "Book of Common Prayer" proscribed. The Interregnum was first dominated by the struggle for supremacy between parliament and army then the country was governed by the Protectorate - a highly unpopular form of martial law - and Cromwell's was installed as Lord Protector and king in all but name.

Old Ironsides 30% off

Kitson, Frank Normal price £8.99 — Discount price £6.29 — You save £2.70  <convert> 

Oliver Cromwell was an undistinguished backbench MP in his forties when the English Civil War began. Like many other gentleman farmers, he recruited a regiment and led it to war. However, unlike most of the amateur leaders, he demonstrated a remarkable apptitude for soldiering and rose to become one of Parliament's leading generals. Ultimately he would use his power-base within the army to seize power and rule all Britain.

General Sir Frank Kitson's concise military biography reveals how and why Cromwell proved so successful. His accessible narrative provides an excellent potted history of the Civil War, peppered with asides on the practicalities of soldiering in the 17th century.

Verneys 20% off

Tinniswood, Adrian Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £20.00 — You save £5.00  <convert> 

'To know the Verneys is to know the seventeenth century,' writes Adrian Tinniswood in his brilliant new book - and thanks to the chance survival in an attic of tens of thousands of their letters, we know the Verneys very well indeed. By drawing on their letters, he reveals the world of this family of Buckinghamshire gentry in extraordinary detail and intimacy. Here are Edmund Verney, Charles I's standard bearer at Edgehill. He died there; all they found of him was his hand, still clutching the King's standard. Edmund left ten children, the oldest of whom, Ralph, struggled to hold the family together during the Civil War. He lost the respect of his brothers and sisters because he alone of the Verneys supported the Parliamentarian cause. Then Parliament, suspicious of royalist connections, hounded him into exile. Ralph's brother Mun was a professional soldier who survived Cromwell's attack on Drogheda in 1649, only to be stabbed to death two days later. Their sister, Mall fell pregnant out of wedlock. Bess ran off with a clergyman. Henry was obsessed with horse-racing. Cary gambled away a fortune.

Tom was a devout Christian and a petty crook: packed off abroad, he kept returning to sponge off his family. The next generation led equally exciting lives. Ralph's son Jack went to Syria and made a fortune. Cousin Pen stayed at home and slept with her sister's fiance. Cousin, Dick was hanged at Tyburn. Jack's brother Edmund married a girl who was rich, beautiful and deeply in love with him. Within months of the marriage, she lost her mind. The "Verneys" is narrative history at its very best - fascinating, surprising, enthralling. It is nothing short of a triumph.

Matters of Exchange 10% off

Cook, Harold J. Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £22.50 — You save £2.50  <convert> 

In this wide-ranging and stimulating book, a leading authority on the history of medicine and science presents convincing evidence that Dutch commerce, not religion, inspired the rise of science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Harold Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands, Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his conclusions are fresh and exciting. He uncovers direct links between the rise of trade and commerce in the Dutch Empire and the flourishing of scientific investigation. Cook argues that engaging in commerce changed the thinking of Dutch citizens, leading to a new emphasis on such values as objectivity, accumulation, and description. The preference for accurate information that accompanied the rise of commerce also laid the groundwork for the rise of science globally, wherever the Dutch engaged in trade. Medicine and natural history were fundamental aspects of this new science, as reflected in the development of gardens for both pleasure and botanical study, anatomical theatres, curiosity cabinets, and richly illustrated books about nature.

Savage Kingdom 15% off

Woolley, Benjamin Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £21.25 — You save £3.75  <convert> 

This is the stunning epic history of the first Virginia Colony and the true story of Pocohontas, to coincide with the colony's 400th anniversary in 2007. Four hundred years ago, a small group of Englishmen landed on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, and set about colonizing the land they had dubbed Virginia. Within months their tiny, precarious settlement faced extinction. Yet somehow, through some of the worst weather conditions in recorded history, in the face of deadly faction fighting, political sabotage, Indian hostility and Spanish threats, they prevailed, laying the foundation of an English-speaking America. Drawing on new discoveries in the British archives and neglected primary sources, "Savage Kingdom" challenges the prevailing view that the Virginia enterprise was driven by profit and crippled by incompetence. The colonization of America was a bold, even reckless political adventure, driven by a sense of imperial destiny, and dogged by official hostility. It was part of a 'heroical design' to create a New World free of the convulsive forces that were destroying the old one.