Representing Revolution in Milton and His Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism. By David Loewenstein. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xiii + 413. $59.95.

At this time, it is almost a given in seventeenth-century studies that the most productive way of approaching a literary text is through its contexts. While they do not abandon the works of canonical authors, scholars typically focus on broad issues of cultural production and the formation of political ideas, most notably the revival of classical republicanism. Maintaining the practices of contextual study, David Loewenstein makes two significant departures from current trends in this challenging and suggestive book. First, he joins Achsah Guibbory in restoring religion to its rightful role in seventeenth-century politics. Second, he affirms the importance of the individual author, rather than "impersonal historical forces" (p. 12), in originating and shaping "revolutionary discourses" (p. 13). Focusing on authors in their polemical contexts, Loewenstein posits "a dark, faction-riven, and violent seventeenth-century revolutionary culture" (p. 1), and writers who developed distinctive ways of responding to the profound uncertainties of the times.

Elizabeth Skerpan-Wheeler
Southwest Texas State University