• Introduction: modernity and later seventeenth-century England Alan Houston and Steve Pincus; 1. The question of secularisation Blair Worden; 2. 'Meer religion' and the 'church-state' of Restoration England: the impact and ideology of James II's Declarations of indulgence Mark Knights; 3. Radicals, reformers and republicans: academic language and political discourse in Restoration London Gary DeKrey; 4. The family in the Exclusion Crisis: Locke vs Filmer revisited Rachel Weil; 5. Understanding popular politics in Restoration Britain Tim Harris; 6. The war in heaven and the Miltonic sublime Nicholas von Maltzahn; 7. The Cowleyan Pindaric ode and sublime diversions Joshua Scodel; 8. Plays as property, 1660–1710 Paulina Kewes; 9. Republicanism, the politics of necessity, and the rule of law Alan Houston; 10. From holy cause to economic interest: the transformation of reason of state thinking in seventeenth-century England Steve Pincus; 11. Natural philosophy and political periodisation: interregnum, restoration, and revolution Barbara Shapiro.

Review of the hardback: ' … an exhilarating and challenging discussion of the theme from various viewpoints.' Lancet