Author(s): Patrick Dillon

World History

The last successful invasion of England; mobs burning Catholic chapels; one king, James, driven from his palace by night while another, William, rode in at the head of a foreign army; the events of winter 1688 were among the most dramatic in our history. The settlement which followed would place England decisively on the path to freedom, toleration, parliamentary democracy and empire. Few moments have done so much to shape this country as the Glorious Revolution. But 1688 would change England in other ways as well. This was the time of Isaac Newton's scientific breakthroughs and John Locke's philosophy. The 1690s would see free market ideas emerge, the first stockmarket boom and bust, the end of press censorship and the arrival of religious toleration. Newspapers were opening. London was becoming a mecca for leisure and conspicuous consumption. In decisive ways, the modern world was formed in these turbulent years. Weaving political drama in with the lives of scientists and revolutionaries, stockjobbers and refugees, "The Last Revolution" paints a vivid canvas of England's last great political struggle, a struggle which often, at the time, seemed far from glorious. First published 2006.