The Last Revolution · 1688 and the Creation of the Modern World

"Vivid, intelligent, a huge success …"

BBC History Magazine

"Utterly engrossing and hugely readable... Dillon expertly conjures an extraordinary moment in history..."

Daily Telegraph

"Vigorous and … engaging … Dillon’s … prose is elegant, his powers of compression fine. The year 1688 could not ask for a more compelling and confident case with which to re-establish its reputation."

The Times

"An excellent, lively account … the reader is given a front row seat …"

Robert Stewart, Spectator

"Dillon sees this world through the eyes of participants and spectators … Dillon excels at … detail, and turns many a memorable phrase … Another of the book's great strengths is its broad cultural dimension. Dillon writes lucidly about music and architecture … Confident, entertaining and illuminating …"

Malcolm Gaskill, Sunday Telegraph

"Vividly described …"

Declain McVeigh, Tribune

"Lucid and well-written, it effectively captures the world of [the] time …"

Tom Devine, Scotland on Sunday

"Patrick Dillon … is an accomplished writer … His prose is accessible, his material well arranged, his reading wide and observant. … His capable narrative of the Revolution is interspersed … with adroit mini-essays on music and theatre and architecture and the position of women … Patrick Dillon is right to complain that the English know so little about 1688 and right to insist, in measured and sensible terms, on its legacy."

Blair Worden, Literary Review

"This book brings to life the revolutionary world of the late seventeenth century mobs burning Catholic chapels; one King driven from his palace by night while another rode in at the head of a foreign army – the events of winter 1688 were among the most dramatic in our history. The settlement which followed would place England decisively on the path to freedom, toleration, parliamentary democracy – and empire. Few moments have done so much to shape this country as the ‘Glorious Revolution’.

But 1688 would change England in other ways as well. This was the time of Isaac Newton’s scientific breakthroughs and John Locke’s philosophy. The 1690s would see free market ideas emerge, the first stockmarket boom and bust, the end of press censorship and the arrival of religious toleration. Newspapers opened. London became a mecca for leisure and conspicuous consumption. In decisive ways, the modern world was formed in these turbulent years.

Closely researched, teeming with dramatic incident and vivid character, The Last Revolution brings to life the revolutionary world of the late seventeenth century.