Short Reviews for August 2025

The English Civil War; The Framers' Intentions; Case of Conscience; The Lark

The English Civil War: A People's History, by Diane Purkiss (629 pp; 2006)

Who should read this book? People who know the overarching narrative of the English Civil War and want to dig deeper.

I wrote recently about great-man and social-trend perspectives on history; this book is solidly on the social-trend side. Purkiss doesn't tell the story of the war itself; she barely tracks the individual battles and how they relate to each other in a military sense. Instead, she tells the story of the era and its people.

Purkiss keeps emphasizing common people - some of whom we see once and never again; others of whom rose to unexpected prominence through being caught up in the wars. Even though I have trouble keeping straight the myriads of names, the repetition of rhyming stories sticks with me and drives home the unexpected opportunities but huge suffering of the wars.

No wonder, after such devastating wars, every radical religion from Quakerism to Fifth Monarchism became popular, and even the staider Presbyterianism turned to view executing the King as a religious duty. People's lives had been torn apart around them, many of them had been literally on the verge of starvation, and they were searching for meaning and foundations. And then - after the first wars ended in the frustrated betrayal of Cromwell's Protectorate and then Cromwell himself died - no wonder Charles II was brought back rather than risk more wars.

I still don't feel I understand the English Civil War. Partly, that's because Purkiss tells barely tracks the military side of the story, but another part is because she's shown me how huge a story it is.

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The Framers' Intentions: The Myth of the Nonpartisan Constitution, by Robert Ross (282 pp; 2019)

Who should read this book? People interested in the early political history of the United States.

The conventional narrative that the Constitution was designed to work without political parties, and that parties grew up as self-identified temporary movements without regards to the Constitution - until finally, Jackson and Van Buren formed the first self-identified permanent political party. Ross argues against that narrative. On the points where he argues, he does prove a case - however, what he proves isn't his claimed thesis.

Ross shows that when political parties emerged, they established institutions built to remain permanent; and that both the Federalists and Republicans expressed views of how their movements could remain as more-or-less-permanent fixtures of American civil society. What's more, he goes to great length to show how parties worked through the institutions set up by the Constitution, and how the Twelfth Amendment was designed to accommodate political parties. I appreciated a lot of this, especially his discussion of Congressional reapportionment in the 1840's.

However, this isn't quite the same as his thesis. His thesis, as he states it, is that the Constitution itself was built to work with parties. But, his evidence is all from after the Constitution, mostly from after Washington's first term. His larger thesis remains unproven.

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A Case of Conscience, by James Blish (256 pp; 1958)

Who should read this book? People who're drawn in by the philosophical question Blish presents in his story.

The plot here is also weak, but the central question is fascinating. Our protagonist is a Catholic priest and scientist sent to report whether this planet - the first with intelligent life! - should be opened for trade or colonization. The aliens appear to effortlessly act morally, but have no religion. For that and other reasons, he decides they were created by Satan as deceptions - which is, of course, heresy; Satan cannot create.

Then, one young alien comes to Earth and starts continually worsening quarrels and stirring up fights. It could just be that he's cut off from others of his species, but it does look like he's at least a tool of Satan. Meantimes, the United Nations considers using this planet for war, and the Pope points out to our protagonist that Satan can indeed make illusions...

I'm not spoiling the ending, but Blish the agnostic closes the theological and ethical question perfectly. And so many images from this book stick in my mind - from the priest's agony at his own heresy to his loneliness surrounded by scientists who don't even consider this question to everyone's distress at returning to an Earth clearly in troubles. I strongly recommend this book to anyone whose curiosity is piqued by its central question.

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The Lark, by Frances Mary Hendry (252 pp; 1992)

Who should read this story? Fans of historical fiction and coming-of-age stories who aren't put off by the framing of a kids' novel.

I very much enjoyed this historical novel. It starts out as what would be a good kids' book, with our young protagonist getting hired as the Dauphin of France's whipping-boy - but then the story expands and matures along with our protagonist. He takes service with the king's archers, and keeps getting drawn into court and national politics. Though he's rarely a motive force himself, events surround him and keep bringing out his character in ways often downplayed but always present.

Hendry weaves her narrative into history beautifully. There're details (such as the circumstances of King Henri's death) that I had no idea were so faithfully recorded until I looked them up afterwards, which serve her plot so excellently I would've thought she must've made them up!

The story here surrounds Mary Queen of Scots and her youthful marriage to the Dauphin (later King) of France. But the Dauphin himself, and the French court as a whole, are more major characters than Queen Mary. Our protagonists are fictional, but on most points they're believable historical characters. And the plot and setting are very well done.

This's the first book of a trilogy surrounding Mary Queen of Scots. The later books (The Falcon and The Jackdaw), I didn't really like, since they get into an unsympathetically simplistic view of the era's religious strife. But for this story, Hendry frames everything very well.