Horses, People and Parliament in the English Civil War: by Dr Gavin Robinson

Horses performed a huge position within the army, financial, social and cultural historical past of early-modern England. This publication makes use of the provision of horses to parliamentary armies through the English Civil struggle to make comparable issues. first of all it exhibits how regulate of assets - even if very important to luck - is contingent upon a number of logistical and political issues. It then demonstrates how pageant for assets and building of people’ identities and allegiances fed into every one other.
Resources, akin to horses, didn't immediately stream out of parts that have been nominally lower than Parliament’s keep an eye on. Parliament needed to build administrative structures and cause them to paintings. This used to be hard while just a minority of the inhabitants actively supported each side and estate rights needed to be negotiated, so the good fortune of those negotiations was once by no means a foregone conclusion.
The examine additionally demonstrates how pageant for assets and building of identities fed into one another. It argues that allegiance used to be now not a hard and fast underlying situation, yet used to be whatever exterior and changeable. activities have been extra very important than techniques and to safe victory, either side wanted humans to do issues instead of think vaguely sympathetic. moreover, identities weren't regularly self-fashioned yet can be imposed on humans opposed to their will, making them prone to disarmament, sequestration, fines or imprisonment.
More than just a e-book approximately assets and logistics, this examine poses basic questions of id development, displaying how tradition and fact effect one another. via an exploration of Parliament’s interplay with neighborhood groups and members, it unearths interesting intersections among army necessity and problems with gender, patriarchy, faith, forms, nationalism and allegiance.