Radical English

For some reason the English Revolution seems to be largely overlooked in the teaching of history.

Arguably however the English Revolution had as much, if not more, impact on history, at least for Commonwealth countries, than the French Revolution.

Certainly the English Revolution deserves not to be completely overlooked, or simply reduced to Charles I, Cromwell, and, Charles II.

Revolutions by their very nature tend to be characterised by freethinking because of the overturning of the status quo.

Of course my interest is drawn to the real radicals like the Levellers, and, Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers, who have been almost completely airbrushed out of history.

For more information on these fascinating and generally overlooked revolutionaries I can thoroughly recommend The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution, by Christopher Hill.

An important reminder that English history is not just infighting, inbred aristocrats. And that not all history is written by the winners, just textbooks, as Christopher Hill was a communist.

He was of course also a very respected historian and his bias, while obvious in the book, is significantly dealt with by his choice of subject matter, in that he has sought out radicals to research.

Regardless you have to look past the Marxist perspective because there isn't really any competition in the Digger research niche.