'This is a lively and provocative, but also deeply illuminating and richly suggestive work from one of the most original and stimulating historians currently working in the early modern period. Professor Shagan scores many a palpable hit in this wonderfully sustained critique of early modern historians' sloppy tendency to essentialize 'moderation' and 'moderate', and to misread these terms' relative, polemical function in the sources of the period. It should be required reading for all those working on early modern British history.' Anthony Milton, University of Sheffield