The Making of Oliver Cromwell Paperback – 23 Aug. 2022

Lots of detail, good insight into Cromwell and what drove him on in the civil war, I also liked the observations of the natural world subtly juxtaposed within the text.

Regardless of whether you feel that Oliver Cromwell was a Great Briton or a ruthless military dictator, Ronald Hutton's biography is a highly entertaining read.What is particularly enlightening is Hutton's account of Cromwell's military career during the first two years of the English Civil War, and how Cromwell made up for a lack of military experience with an incredible amount of energy.Strongly recommended.

More than three centuries after his death, Oliver Cromwell remains a controversial figure: hero to some, devil to others. Ronald Hutton has confined this volume (he hints there might be another) to Cromwell's rise to national prominence at the close of the First Civil War in 1646. He pays a number of prices for this focus on the early years, not the least of which is the relative paucity of material about the first forty years of Cromwell's life. This alone makes the biographer's task of describing and explaining the origins of the subject's personality and interests well nigh impossible. It is not just that Cromwell springs into recorded history fully formed, a man already into middle age and set in his ways, but that the contrast between the traceably dull and petulant yeoman of pre-War days and the brash and successful cavalry commander of the 1640s is so great that it defies understanding. The other heavy price that Hutton pays is that he is obliged by the available evidence to concentrate very heavily on the detail of Cromwell's military activities. This becomes at times dizzyingly complex, even tedious. It also obscures Cromwell's political activity. It seemed to me that in this book Cromwell existed only within a tiny circle of light, like an actor on a darkened stage, while all the social and family contacts he undoubtedly had were lost in the shadows behind him. Indeed this lack of context worried me all the way through the book. Associates and opponents flitted in and out of the story but were seldom fleshed out. Nor were the burning constitutional issues of the day. Hutton's style is puzzling. He can write the most lyrical descriptions of the English countryside (though for my taste these appear too often and are too artificially inserted) and yet some of his sentences are jagged and clunky, even to the point of making his meaning unclear. Greater clarity was also wanting in his references to his subject who appears seemingly at random as either 'Oliver' or 'Cromwell' and occasionally as both in the same sentence. This is not made easier by the fact that his uncle of the same name also intrudes at different places. Hutton is at his strongest when marshalling his ideas to analyse Cromwell's character - the final chapter does this very effectively - but he does not do enough to show us Cromwell's true nature through his words and actions. Too often Hutton prefers to precis a letter or speech instead of quoting from it, and we lose something of the flavour of the man by not hearing his own words. My main misgiving, though, is that we learn too little of his family, especially his redoubtable mother and his long-suffering wife. What we are given here is the public Cromwell, not the man, warts and all. It is a clever book but a missed opportunity. Nonetheless, I hope he writes the second volume, which I shall read with keen interest.

I enjoyed this very much. The early part of the book can be a bit frustrating because Hutton has limited data to go on in compiling his history, but he is fastidious in clarifying exactly what can be known and what has to be guessed.Once the Civil War gets underway we are on much clearer territory. I have read several books on this period but this is by far the best at describing the blow by blow development of the campaign, the constant replanning that had to be made by both sides as the war ranged all over England from Cornwall to Newcastle and all points in between.Also fascinating is the way disputes within the Puritan party about religion were a crucial factor which Cromwell had to pay as much attention to as he did to the military campaign, because it affected it crucially. His own soldiers were Independents, who wanted freedom of worship, whereas the majority in line with their Scottish allies wanted a three line whip behind the Presbyterian Church. It might be thought this freedom, this generous spirit, was integral to Cromwell’s military success as he supported his men to the hilt and when the military situation allowed was generous in victory. As no doubt Mr Hutton will explain if he produces further volumes on Cromwell, this tension between Cromwell’s own views and the Presbyterians was to be the main theme for the rest of his life.

If you are interested in the civil war you will love this book.

Despite the considerable work this book must have taken and an impressive list of references, very little of substance is revealed about Cromwell himself until the last fifty pages. This essentially remains a book on episodes of the Civil War at which Cromwell was present. To make matters worse, chapters are overlong, diagrams not placed where they are needed, there is an annoying alternating between the use of ‘Cromwell’ and ‘Oliver’, and a rather formulaic manner in which countryside and vegetation descriptions, however well written in themselves, are inserted almost as if they were an afterthought. Shame.

Interesting read, different to normal views.

Book in new condition shipped in plastic wrap and bubble wrap. A good deal. Thanks.

The story of a man of faith corrupted by power.

The book was interesting. It gives a great physical description of The House of Lords/Commons, incomplete description of British Politics of the time (1600’s). An excellent description of the “long” & “short” Parliaments and Cromwell’s role in the latter.The author falls short, in my opinion, in describing Cromwell’s attitudes, personality at the latter time, only mentioning his role and support of “Covenanters”.A good book nevertheless. The author deals with a difficult subject and a paucity of material.Stan Sanders

Unless you are one deeply interested in the details of seventeenth-century battles fought in England between Parliament and King (mostly over religious issues), this book can easily be skipped by the general reader in America.There is not much known for sure about the early life of Oliver Cromwell and Professor Hutton takes many pages to say just this.Professor Hutton does provide good commentary on period warfare, such as about sieges and fortifications. However, if you are simply interested in learning about Oliver Cromwell, I suggest getting hold of one of the whole-life biographies devoted to this polarizing figure in British history.