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A review by snarf137
The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution by Christopher Hill
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Fascinating account of the radical movements that came about during the mid-17 century in England. With the breakdown of censorship and unprecedented movement of people between regions, classes, religions, and allegiances, truly radical ideas developed. While the Levellers are often singled out as the radicals on the parliamentarian side, they are in fact milquetoast in comparison with other minority radical groups, from Diggers, Ranters, Seekers, Quakers, Muggletonians, Grindletonians, Fifth Monarchists, and the like. These groups in of themselves had no consistent beliefs, differing in eschatology, nature of Christ, economic philosophy, sexual ethics, pantheistic instincts, the reality of sin, etc in ways that are sometimes radical even by our standards. Some movements, like the Ranters, took the Calvinist idea of free grace to its extreme end, stating that no actions were sinful for true Christians. Interestingly, even pseudo-Atheist/Deist/Pantheist (it gets murky) groups still couched their philosophies in Biblical language, or at the very least using Christian jargon. Such radical groups also seem to have been prevalent among the lowest, itinerant classes as they experienced coerced transition into proto-capitalist society and the social disruptions of agricultural improvement.
These ideas are also presented as a challenge to the emerging protestant ethic which was replacing the aristocratic worldview during the Civil War. Insofar as the protestant ethic represents the triumph of the Puritan middle class, Hill envisions a competing ecosystem of radical ideas that attempted to strike at the very root of both aristocratic and middle class legitimacy. This also led to the sometimes baffling alliance between aristocrats and low-class radicals in an effort to cut down the growing stranglehold of the protestant middle class. They of course were unsuccessful, with this gentry class and ideology eventually succeeding in ushering in the Glorious revolution, setting the stage of modern capitalism, rationalism, efficiency, and imperialism that characterized the British 18th and 19th centuries.
Hill is obviously partial towards the Diggers and their intellectual leader, Gerarrd Winstanley, given his Marxist origins and the Diggers' proto-communist roots. Although many of these groups were later folded into the increasingly more respectable and interior-centered Quaker movement, Hill tries to tie the influence of these radical ideas to later post-Restoration literature and philosophy, including Milton and Bunyan, but I am not familiar enough with these to comment on whether he does so convincingly. Although this book was not the most well structured, the anecdotes and examples were absolutely fascinating and shed light on a time of true social chaos, revolutionary zeal, and unrestrained radical ideas that were far ahead of their time.
These ideas are also presented as a challenge to the emerging protestant ethic which was replacing the aristocratic worldview during the Civil War. Insofar as the protestant ethic represents the triumph of the Puritan middle class, Hill envisions a competing ecosystem of radical ideas that attempted to strike at the very root of both aristocratic and middle class legitimacy. This also led to the sometimes baffling alliance between aristocrats and low-class radicals in an effort to cut down the growing stranglehold of the protestant middle class. They of course were unsuccessful, with this gentry class and ideology eventually succeeding in ushering in the Glorious revolution, setting the stage of modern capitalism, rationalism, efficiency, and imperialism that characterized the British 18th and 19th centuries.
Hill is obviously partial towards the Diggers and their intellectual leader, Gerarrd Winstanley, given his Marxist origins and the Diggers' proto-communist roots. Although many of these groups were later folded into the increasingly more respectable and interior-centered Quaker movement, Hill tries to tie the influence of these radical ideas to later post-Restoration literature and philosophy, including Milton and Bunyan, but I am not familiar enough with these to comment on whether he does so convincingly. Although this book was not the most well structured, the anecdotes and examples were absolutely fascinating and shed light on a time of true social chaos, revolutionary zeal, and unrestrained radical ideas that were far ahead of their time.