british history – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Glorious Revolution: The History of the Overthrow of King James II of England by William of Orange

By Scott J. Pearson | May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Scott J. Pearson

Given recent events in American politics, I wanted to read a short history of perhaps the most bloodless revolution in Western history: the so-called “Glorious Revolution” of 1688 in England. In the short time on his thrown, King James II, a Roman Catholic, had sought to exert supreme power over England, which had been Protestant for some time. Though no polls existed then, he grew unpopular with an estimated 19/20 people against him. The English…

Review: Chaucer

By Scott J. Pearson | August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Author of the Canterbury Tales (among other works), Geoffrey Chaucer is a pioneer of the English language from the late middle ages. He is eclipsed in his innovations perhaps only by William Shakespeare. Peter Ackroyd is a modern British historian and a worthy biographer of this giant. In this accessible series (read: short books), Ackroyd provides us with a great summary of what there is to know about Chaucer from historical records. Chaucer was not…