This is a fascinating collection of essays illustrating the latest thought on the crucial decade of the 1670s in Britain. This was a period in which it could be argued the modern world began to emerge. These essays reflect and analyse these tensions, illustrating the surprising routes by which 'modern' ideas made progress.

Introduction - Living with masquerade: the recent scholarship of the 1670s in the Stuart realms TONY CLAYDON and THOMAS N. CORNS 1 Paradise postponed: the nationhood of nuns in the 1670s NICKY HALLETT 2 The Anglo-Scottish union proposals of 1670 CLARE JACKSON 3 Bunyan's 'certain place': fleeing Esau in the 1670s BETH LYNCH 4 Literary innovation and social transformation in the 1670s NIGEL SMITH 5 'Great agents for libertinism': Rochester and Milton JAMES GRANTHAM TURNER 6 'From the hearts of the people': loyalty, addresses and the public sphere in the exclusion crisis TED VALLANCE 7 King Philip's war and the edges of civil religion in 1670s London ELLIOTT VISCONSI