Our First Revolution by Michael Barone (2007)
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The book’s subtitle is, “The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired America’s Founding Fathers.” Barone takes on a subject well-known to most Brits, but nearly unknown to Americans — the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688-89, where the autocratic “divine right” James II was ousted by British lords and a Dutch invasion by William of Orange (whose wife, Mary, was next in line for the throne). Barone’s thesis is that the nature of this upheaval, of William, and of the aftermath, played a profound role not only in British history, but in the rebellion of the American colonies some ninety years later.
Writing: This is Old School history — lots of dates, lots of names, lots of recaps, lots of facts and figures — and probably not as much personality explanations as the casual history buff would like. I know a lot more about the whole thing than I did before I listened to this audiobook — but while I know what people did, I have less understanding of why they did it.
Part of that may be the clumsiness (in a facts-and-figures setting) of the audiobook format. Part of it is the cast of hundreds spanning across fifty-odd years (at least) of British/Dutch/French history. But part of it is just that the book is often more fact-driven than interpretation-driven.
Info: Barone takes us from the reign of Charles II after the fall of the Cromwellian revolutionary republic, through his successor James II — an autocrat who was determined to uphold and promote Catholicism in England, Scotland and Ireland — through the reign of his usuper, William of Orange. How William moved from English opponent, to ally, to invader and king, how the various factions in England let it happen, how James’ own actions sorely backfired on him, and the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, is all spelled out quite cleanly.
Religion was huge. Part of it was just factional labeling, making an Us vs Them setup. But the impact of the various religions factions — Catholics, Anglicans, and Dissenters (mostly Presbyterian, but the term applying to anyone who was an English Protestant but not a member of the the Church of England) — was huge. Catholics were hated and feared by large swaths of the population, for reasons both concrete (looking at Tudor-Stuart history, not to mention the autocratically Catholic — if sometimes anti-Papal — nature of England’s enemy, France) and spurious (endless rumors of plots by various Catholic factions). A huge part of what goes on during Charles II’s reign is the question of whether the converted Catholic James II can be allowed to be made king — and, once he acquires the throne, his efforts to either impose Catholic rule, or impose tolerance, by dispensing with various Parliamentary acts restricting civil and military posts to Anglicans and packing same with Catholics. William, coming in as neither an Anglican or a Catholic, is still welcomed by a Church of England establishment that fears and resents James.
The essential thesis of the book — though only the last chapter really spells it out — is that the Glorious Revolution (a largely bloodless coup, though accompanied by Dutch troops) played a profound role in the later American revolution. Barone posits that the ouster of James II spelled a radical divergence from the Continent (where autocratic kings were largely marginalizing or doing away with representative councils) and from the Stuart kings (who either ruled for lengthy periods of time without Parliament in session, or else packed/corrupted elections to get only Tory crown loyalists elected), and ushered in a government that followed a civil contract with the king, rather than a divine mandate. Under William — and thereafter — the king’s powers were circumscribed by the Parliament (elected Commons and peer Lords), and the idea of both representative government and guaranteed liberties that were established for England became a huge grievance for the American colonists in the mid-late 18th Century.
Indeed, binding the two above points together, the eventual Constitutional prinicples of the new United States preventing an established church by state or federal government, as well as forbidding any religious test for offfice, suddenly becomes far more clear in its intent and motivation.
Re-Readability: The information, once passed on, makes delving through lengthy lists of names, dates, amounts, and other columnar facts a lot less appealing. I don’t see listening to this again (though I don’t regret listening to it once).
Audio: The audio quality of this Tantor unabridged edition is excellent. Stephen Hoye narrates with authority and clarity, though even he struggles with some of the facts-and-figures-rich areas of the book.
Overall: A very informative description of an even some in the US have heard of, but few know much about. Barone establishes and appears to prove his thesis, and it’s a very illuminating examination of a precursor to much of what we consider American values today.