The English Rebel

The English Rebel

One Thousand Years of Trouble-making from the Normans to the Nineties

Summary

The English have a rich and glorious history of making trouble for themselves. One hundred and forty years before the French Revolution, the English executed their king and instituted a radical revolutionary government. In 1215, more than 570 years before the United States ratified its Bill of Rights, England's barons forced King John to accept the Magna Carta. In 1926 over 1.5 million strikers brought the nation to its knees.

From the Peasants' Revolt to the suffragettes, from Oliver Cromwell to Arthur Scargill, this ground-breaking and hugely enjoyable book describes a rich and continuous tradition of resistance, rebellion and radicalism, of violent and charismatic individuals with axes to grind, and of social eruptions and political earthquakes that have shaped England's whole culture and character.

Reviews

  • A superb losers' history of England [told] with narrative verve and delicious detail
    Ferdinand Mount

About the author

David Horspool

David Horspool is the History Editor of the Times Literary Supplement, and the author of Why Alfred Burned the Cakes: A king and his eleven-hundred-year afterlife, The English Rebel: One thousand years of troublemaking from the Normans to the Nineties, and Richard III: A ruler and his reputation. He co-edited The People Speak: Voices that changed Britain with Anthony Arnove and Colin Firth.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more