"The period 1460-1660 was one of the most dramatic and crucially formative in the emergence of the modern English state, language and self-consciousness. It encompassed the reigns of the last Plantagenets, the Tudors and the early Stuarts, as well as the victory of Parliament over the King in the Great Civil War and the amazing experiment of the Puritan Republic.".

"The Making of the Modern English State traces the changes in politics and religion over the 200 years that helped to form a new English identity. It is both an up-to-date narrative of the growth of the English state and an invaluable guide to recent historiography."--BOOK JACKET.