Lecture
The Blazing World
Speaker: Jonathan Healey
Fri, 15 Sep 2023
About the lecture:
Jonathan is a lecturer at the Department for Continuing Education in Oxford. The Blazing World has been extremely well-reviewed. Described by a thoughtful reviewer as a ‘readable and informative overview… evoking a lost world which, for better or worse, laid down many features of our modern world’, the book presents a view of the century from the bottom up.
Jonathan draws on many new sources, introducing insights from social and economic points of view. Kings and Queens, Roundheads, and Cavaliers are joined in Jonathan’s new account by a popular mood with an increasingly powerful influence as the century progressed.
For the Civil War, Henley was in no man’s land between the Royal interest headquartered at Oxford and Parliament in London, and its role deserves more attention than it has recently received. Jonathan has said that he will give his presentation for Henley a ‘local twist’ so that we can take a fresh look at the town against the background of his blazing seventeenth century.
This is a ticketed event for members only. doors open at 7:15 for a start at 7:45
Associate Professor in Social History
I am a social historian of early modern England. I direct the MSc in English Local History and the Undergraduate Diploma in Social and Local history. I am keen to hear from postgraduate research students interested in early modern social history and the history of the English Civil War and Revolution.
Research Interests
My current research is on the court of Star Chamber, social policy, and popular legalism and politics. Abolished in the revolutionary year of 1641, the Star Chamber was an expression of the royal prerogative, and my current work considers the role played by the court and by the Attorney-General in formulating social and agrarian policy.
I have written about the poor laws, famine and food shortages, local courts, the history of common land and landholding, local festive culture and the role of constables in the maintenance of order.