The Revolution in Time explores the idea that people in Western Europe
changed the way they thought about the concept of time over the early
modern period, by examining reactions to the 1688-1689 revolution in
England. The study examines how those who lived through the
extraordinary collapse of James II's regime perceived this event as it
unfolded, and how they set it within their understanding of history.
It questions whether a new understanding of chronology - one which
allowed fundamental and human-directed change - had been widely
adopted by this point in the past; and whether this might have allowed
witnesses of the revolution to see it as the start of a new era, or as
an opportunity to shape a novel, 'modern', future for England. It
argues that, with important exceptions, the people of the era rejected
dynamic views of time to retain a 'static' chronology that failed to
fully conceptualise evolution in history. Bewildered by the rapid
events of the revolution itself, people forced these into familiar
scripts. Interpreting 1688-1689 later, they saw it as a reiteration of
timeless principles of politics, or as a stage in an eternal and
pre-determined struggle for true religion. Only slowly did they see
come to see it as part of an evolving and modernising process - and
then mainly in response to opponents of the revolution, who had
theorised change in order to oppose it. The volume thus argues for a
far more complex and ambiguous model of changes in chronological
conception than many accounts have suggested; and questions whether
1688-1689 could be the leap toward modernity that recent
interpretations have argued.
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Chronology, Modernity, and 1688-1689 in England
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780192549303
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic UK
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter