The familiar story of the 17th century told through unfamiliar voices

"The 17th century saw five kings sit on England’s throne: one a Scot, the second overthrown and beheaded, the third exiled, restored and succeeded by his brother, a Catholic, and the fifth a Dutchman. "

England and what would become Britain were quite staid compared to what was going on in the rest of "Europe". However, C17 was quite a volatile time hereabouts. Later on we reverted to German Kings - George I: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Great_Britain

This is a really interesting period, when what we think of as modern ideas about governance and human rights were coffee-house conversation and the seeds of revolution across Europe were being sown. Although I think appropriating the title from the original is a bit much, I think this sounds like an interesting history and one formed from a more diverse crowd of contributors. One can only read so much Pepys.

Chapo Trap House is running an excellent multi-part series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U9lEyXTOqo) on the 30 Years War, and coincidentally just ran their first episode on "what was going on in England during all this" (exactly what this book covers) just last week. Regardless of what you think of their politics (dirtbag communists, more or less), it's great listening.

The context of the 30 Years War is wild: an information revolution (thanks Gutenberg), a crisis of epistemology (i.e. a breakdown of the consensus of what is truth, thanks Martin Luther), and even climate change (thanks volcanic activity, sunspots, and a sudden carbon sink in the Americas).

so anyway, I'll definitely be checking this one out

I was more than half expecting a link to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1coAHS4c3oc