Milton and the English Revolution

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In this remarkable book Christopher Hill used the learning gathered in a lifetime's study of seventeenth-century England to carry out a major reassessment of Milton as man, politician, poet, and religious thinker. The result is a Milton very different from most popular representations- instead of a gloomy, sexless Puritan, we have a dashingly thinker, branded with the contemporary reputation of a libertine.In this remarkable book Christopher Hill used the learning gathered in a lifetime's study of seventeenth-century England to carry out a major reassessment of Milton as man, politician, poet, and religious thinker. The result is a Milton very different from most popular representations- instead of a gloomy, sexless Puritan, we have a dashingly thinker, branded with the contemporary reputation of a libertine.
Christopher Hill (1912 2003), born in York, was a historian and academic specialising in seventeenth-century English history. As a young man he witnessed the growth of the Nazi party firsthand during a prolonged holiday in Germany, an experience he later said contributed to the radicalisation of his politics. He was master of Balliol College, University of Oxford, his alma mater, from 1965 to 1978. His celebrated and influential works include Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution, The World Turned Upside Down, and A Turbulent, Seditious and Fractious People- John Bunyan and His Church.