DRUMS AND TRUMPETS: The House of Stuart

From England, with an introductory statement that the way to ""our"" liberties and today's tolerant climate was paved in the 17th century and especially the Civil War, a broad view of everyday life and political climate between the accession of James I and the death of Queen Anne. McLeod's summarizing characterizations of the monarchs and of court, town, and country life under each are bolstered with frequent quotations from contemporary poems, letters, and diaries, and punctuated with odd sideways glances--which seem to assume prior acquaintance, yet add little to the knowledge of those who have it--at such prominent creative figures as Rubens, John Donne, and Inigo Jones. There is no sense here of the author's voice or ideas, and nothing to match either the telling vitality of Barber's anecdotes in A Strong Land and Sturdy or the cultivated wit that Garfield (The House of Hanover) brought to this uncompromising British series. Nevertheless, a well-balanced picture of the period.