Living with masquerade: the recent scholarship of the 1670s in the Stuart realms

This is a fascinating collection of essays illustrating the latest thought on the crucial decade of the 1670s in Britain. This was a period in which it could be argued the modern world began to emerge. With the 1660 royal restoration after the republican regimes of the preceding eleven years, an attempt had been made to put the political, cultural and religious clock back to the days of the early Stuarts. By the 1670s, however, this Restoration settlement was under unravelling as it was challenged by new ideas of religious toleration, popular sovereignty, and diverse nationality. These essays reflect and analyse these tensions, illustrating the surprising routes by which 'modern' ideas made progress.