Lord Churchill's Coup: The Anglo-American Empire and the Glorious Revolution Reconsidered / Edition 1

by Stephen Webb

Overview

Stephen Saunders Webb argues that both England and its American social experiments were the underdeveloped elements of an empire emerging on both sides of the Atlantic and that the pivotal moment of that empire, the so-called Glorious Revolution, was in fact a military coup driven by religious fears.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815605584
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Stephen Saunders Webb, professor of history at Syracuse University, is the author of The Governors General: The English Army and the Definition of the Empire, 1569-1676 and 1676: The End of American Independence

Editorial Reviews

Webb alerts us to the fact that the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 in England was an exercise in military politics and religious intolerance. . . . The coup boosted the officers to power as governors and garrison commanders, and under Queen Anne ultimately brought about Marlborough's great victories over Louis XIV in Europe, insuring British hegemony for much of the 18th century.

The New York Times Book Review

Continuing the provocative reappraisal of the Anglo-American empire last explored in his 1676: The End of American Independence (LJ 5/15/84), Webb argues that there was no "Glorious Revolution"; what occurred in 1688 was a military coup led by John Churchill (later duke of Marlborough). Webb's insistence that parliament and the colonial assemblies were bit players in this struggle is unconvincing; his iconoclasm at times leads to annoying overstatement, e.g., he labels Louis XIV the "French Hitler." The strengths of his very interesting book are its well-documented demonstration of personal and institutional ties among political and military leaders throughout the empire, the attention it focuses on the military's role in the revolution, and Webb's argument that Britain and its colonies must be studied side by side. For informed readers and scholars.-William B. Robison, Southeastern Louisana Univ., Hammond

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Having argued in his 1976 The Governors-General that Anglo-America of 16th and 17th centuries was an empire administered by the army officer corps, Webb (history, Syracuse) now recasts what is grandly known as The Glorious Revolution--1688 in England and 1689 in America--as a military coup fueled by religious fear that sparked a century-long war for American empire. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough is his principal character. Knopf published the first edition in 1995. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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