I Read Books: The English Civil War: A People's History
Purkiss writes a history of the civil war from the ground up, using letters and other documents by people who were there. And by other documents I mean newspapers and journals, but also cook books, bills, inventories, petitions, poetry, all manner of strange things.
Purkiss describes her intention as to give a voice to the people who were there, not just the great but also the ordinary. To an extent she succeeds, as such there is a tendency to sketch the major course of the wars and fill in details that don’t usually get quite so much attention. This works especially well in the run-up to the war with the layers of misunderstanding and propaganda that destroyed the peace.
Read This: For some less known stories of the English Civil War(s)
Don’t Read This: If you want a simplified outline of the events that does not revel in digressions
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