"This latest volume of the "Blackwell History of Early Modern England" series is a most welcome addition ... A lively, engaging book that illuminates the wide-ranging preoccupations of the reign." Choice "The book provides a very entertaining and persuasive illustration of the spirit of a particular age. It also explains, better than ever before, why the various publics of the time thought and reacted to events as they did, and so makes the political history of a notoriously confusing and opaque decade much easier to understand." English Historical Review "This work convincingly disputes the tendency to allow the 1670s to be overshadowed by the Popish Plot and the Exclusion crisis ... Spurr carefully places events in their historical context and avoids anachronism by emphasising the contemporary perception of events ... Spurr is judicious in his treatment of literature and consequently makes a particularly strong case for its reflection of period concerns." Ecclesiastical History "John Spurr has written a wonderfully intriguing acount of the 1670s ... One could give the book to students in the hope that they learnt how, as well as what, to write." Albion "The broad scope of themes explored and the extensive use of contempary texts to illustrate his argument demonstarte the author's impressive grasp of the literature of the period." Warren Johnston, University of Saskatchewan - Canadian Journal of History