Revel, Riot and Rebellion: Popular Politics and Culture in England 1603-1660

What do maypoles, charivari processions, and stoolball matches have to do with the English civil war? A great deal, argues Underdown in this provocative reinterpretation of the English Revolution. Underdown uses case histories of three western countries to show that the war was, above all, the result of profound disagreements amond people of all social levels about the moral basis of their communities--that commoners as well as rulers held strong opinions about order and governance. Through an original synthesis of social history and popular culture, Underdown links these regionally diverse political opinions to cultural diversity and shows that local differences in popular allegiance in the civil war strikingly coincided with regional contrasts in the traditional festive culture. This pioneering study offers a new understanding of the relationship between society, politics, and culture in 17th-century England.