Book Review: Oliver Cromwell by Hillaire Belloc

(Ernest Benn Ltd: London, 1927, reprint 1931)

Let me begin by saying that I picked this book up on a whim (at the Oxfam Bookshop on Gt Russell St, by the British Library), hoping that it was a brief, because slim, account of the life of the man. It is instead a historical essay of ample if not great perspicacity, which I am anyway largely unfit to judge, being wholly inexpert in the topic of the English revolution. Nevertheless, between some of arguments generally inane to the reader ignorant of the history under discussion, the presumption of general historical knowledge in the reader allows Belloc to develop certain arguments, e.g. of Cromwell’s character and practices, or of the economic circumstances of Puritan and Parliamentary armies relative to modern times (at publication, in 1927).
Perhaps the greatest virtue of this book is not in its own historical content, but as a piece of historiography. The many references to the recent World War, and pre- and post-war experience, and the relevance of such experience in interpreting and understanding hisotrical events is remarkable. This opening of historical analogous reasoning encourages the development of moral and ethical themes across history, without trivialising either the differences between historical periods (and perhaps even, by extension, other contemporary cutlures) or suffering the subjects of such analysis to be deprived of their humanity- Cromwell is not dehumanised though his wanton violence and paucity of cogent philosophy of governance are heavily analysed and criticised by Belloc. Although I lack sufficient historical knowledge to develop any critique of this essay, it is an enjoyable perspective on the history of that era, to take forward into future readings of early modern English history.