Representing Revolution in Milton and his Contemporaries
Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism

Loewenstein explores the interactions of literature, polemics and religious politics in the English Revolution.

David Loewenstein (Author)

9780521770323, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 March 2001

428 pages, 1 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.8 kg

'Loewenstein has given us a marvellously detailed, critically acute, intellectually sympathetic account of the literary production of radical Puritanism in general, and a compelling reorientation of our reading of Milton in particular.' Modern Language Review

David Loewenstein's Representing Revolution in Milton and his Contemporaries is a wide-ranging exploration of the interactions of literature, polemics and religious politics in the English Revolution. Loewenstein highlights the powerful spiritual beliefs and religious ideologies in the polemical struggles of Milton, Marvell and their radical Puritan contemporaries during these revolutionary decades. By examining a wide range of canonical and non-canonical writers - John Lilburne, Winstanley the Digger and Milton, amongst others - he reveals how radical Puritans struggled with the contradictions and ambiguities of the English Revolution and its political regimes. His portrait of a faction-riven, violent seventeenth-century revolutionary culture is an original and significant contribution to our understanding of these turbulent decades and their aftermath. By placing Milton's great poems in the context of the period's radical religious politics, it should be of interest to historians as well as literary scholars.

Acknowledgements
Note on abbreviations and citations
Introduction
Part I. Radical Puritanism and Polemical Responses: 1. Lilburne, Leveller polemic and the ambiguities of the Revolution
2. Gerrard Winstanley and the crisis of the Revolution
3. Ranter and Fifth Monarchist prophecies: the revolutionary visions of Abiezer Coppe and Anna Trapnel
4. The War of the Lamb: the revolutionary discourse of George Fox and early Quakerism
5. Marvell, the saints and the Protectorate
Part II. Milton: Radical Puritan Politics, Polemics and Poetry: 6. Milton, Antichristian revolts and the English Revolution
7. Radical Puritan politics and Satan's revolution in Paradise Lost
8. The kingdom within: radical religion and politics in Paradise Regained
9. The saint's revenge: radical religion and politics in Samson Agonistes
Afterword - two-handed engine: politics and spiritual warfare in the 1671 poems
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Revolutionary groups & movements [JPWQ], History of religion [HRAX], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary studies: general [DSB]