Representing Revolution in Milton and his Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism

by David Loewenstein

Overview

This book is a wide-ranging exploration of the interactions of literature, polemics and religious politics in the English Revolution. Loewenstein highlights the powerful spiritual beliefs and religious ideologies in the polemical struggles of Milton, Marvell and their radical Puritan contemporaries during these revolutionary decades. Loewenstein's portrait of a faction-riven, violent seventeenth-century revolutionary culture is an original and significant contribution to our understanding of these turbulent decades and their aftermath.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521770323
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2001
Pages:	428
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

David Loewenstien is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of Milton and the Drama of History: Historical Vision, Iconoclasm, and the Literary Imagination (Cambridge, 1990), which won the Milton Society of America's James Holly Hanford Award for Distinguished book. He is co-editor of Politics, Poetics, and Hermeneutics in Milton's Prose (Cambridge, 1990) and of the forthcoming Cambridge History of Early Modern Literature.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Note on abbreviations and citations; Introduction; Part I. Radical Puritanism and Polemical Responses: 1. Lilburne, Leveller polemic and the ambiguities of the Revolution; 2. Gerrard Winstanley and the crisis of the Revolution; 3. Ranter and Fifth Monarchist prophecies: the revolutionary visions of Abiezer Coppe and Anna Trapnel; 4. The War of the Lamb: the revolutionary discourse of George Fox and early Quakerism; 5. Marvell, the saints and the Protectorate; Part II. Milton: Radical Puritan Politics, Polemics and Poetry: 6. Milton, Antichristian revolts and the English Revolution; 7. Radical Puritan politics and Satan's revolution in Paradise Lost; 8. The kingdom within: radical religion and politics in Paradise Regained; 9. The saint's revenge: radical religion and politics in Samson Agonistes; Afterword - two-handed engine: politics and spiritual warfare in the 1671 poems; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Loewenstein is a steady and lucid guide through the morass of revolutionary writings. His work on Milton is...original and exciting...There is a subtle and brilliant reading of Paradise Lost, which analyses the ambiguous, evil political strategies of Satan." Times Literary Supplement

"This valuable cross-disciplinary study offers an extended look at the various enthusiastic sects and personalities of the Interregnum in order to place Milton's work more securely in its historical context." Seventeenth-Century News

"Loewenstein does an extraordinary job." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"The Puritans were by no means all of one (narrow) mind—Milton was and remains a heretic in almost everyone's view—and the factionalism is clearly exposed here. If Israel today is not enough to make the point, you could read Representing Revolution in Milton and His Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism to see that religion and politics are the strange bedfellows that Shakespeare perceived adversity produces." Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

"Loewenstein offers a brilliant reading ...This book makes a number of important contributions to our understanding of radical Puritanism." H-Net Reviews Jan 2002

"...specialist will fin it a valuable addition tot he scholarship of this fascinating period in English literary history." Journal of English and Germanic Philology

"Representing Revolution skillfully unpacks the intricacies of mid-century radical literature, and offers riveting and original readings of Milton's major poems. The book is a scholarly masterwork, and is sure to become prominent in the canon of Milton criticism." Prose Studies

From the Publisher