Nominated for the Deutscher Memorial Prize.
"Feisty, fearless and fascinating: this book spotlights London's revolutionary upheavals at the start of Britain's seventeenth-century Civil War; it shows how London's revolutionary role has been too often downplayed; and it explains its long-term significance for later generations. Michael Sturza will provoke many debates - and a good thing too!"
- Penelope J. Corfield, emeritus Prof. London University; Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK); and President of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
"Michael Sturza brings the London Revolution 1640-1643 to life - a welcome tonic for tough times. …one is reminded of the complexities of social change and the essential role of class struggle… 17th century England has much to teach us relevant to the 21st century. Sturza is a vital addition to the canon. An excellent reader for students and the general public alike."
- Marvin Surkin, specialist in comparative urban politics and social change and co-author of Detroit: I Do Mind Dying
"A passionate, Marxist analysis exploring the role of structural and socio-economic problems in radicalizing people on the eve of the English civil war. Combing high and low politics, Sturza stresses the importance of class conflict and reminds us just how revolutionary the English revolution was."
- Tim Harris, editor of Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History series and The European Legacy journal
"A richly detailed and documented contribution! Michael Sturza not only refutes…conservative revisionist historians…but provides significant evidence of how organized and militant social forces…played a decisive role in the end of British feudalism. …Sturza demonstrates the value and efficacy of historical materialism for understanding the…dimensions of social change and revolution."
- Burton Lee Artz, director of the Center for Global Studies at Purdue University Northwest
Complete commentary available on The Mad Duck Coalition's website
The London Revolution 1640 - 1643: Class Struggles in 17th Century England chronicles England's history through the revolution in 1641 - 1642, which toppled the feudal political system, and its aftermath. It explores how the growing capitalist economy fundamentally conflicted with decaying feudal society, causing tensions and dislocations that affected all social classes in the early modern period. In contrast with most other works, this book posits that the fundamental driving force of the revolution was the militant Puritan movement supported by the class of petty-bourgeois artisan craftworkers, instead of the moderate gentry in the House of Commons.
The London Revolution 1640 - 1643 further traces the detrimental effects of the political alliance between the free-trade Atlantic merchants and the gentry for the revolution. Despite the conservative and contradictory nature of the English bourgeois revolution, the experience in London is the original source for democratic ideas that were codified in the 1689 Bill of Rights and the U.S. Bill of Rights a century later.
Taken in its entirety, The London Revolution 1640 - 1643 refutes the virulent attacks on Marxist social class analysis spearheaded by revisionist historians who would rather write the concept of revolution out of history.
