Men and Women

MR. Stirling Taylor presents Oliver Cromwell in his true light as one of the great paradoxes of history. At the outset he attributes the confusion and mistatements regarding the Protector to undue consideration of theory at the expense of facts, and proceeds to a minute investigation of the actual facts of Cromwell's life that sets forth the problem of the man inlucid outline.

A dogmatic solution of the problem is far from the author's intent. "Oliver Cromwell," he says in closing, "had set out with the high profession that he would save the parliamentary liberties of Englishmen. That was his theory. In practice he never once allowed England to elect a free Parliament, and his only permanent legacy to the nation was a standing army. A fact like that cannot be fitly explained by the mere historian. It is a subject for a writer of great tragedy--or farcical comedy."

As saint and slayer, as professed parliamentarian and absolute ruler by power of the sword, Cromwell is convicted by the marshaling of the writer's facts. He is made to stand forth as a fanatic as convinced of divine inspiration and protection as any divine-right Stuart monarch ever could be. But the dominant impression gained of the man is one of militaristic might, of the martial power that was the weakness of the Protectorate, the most direct contributing cause of the Restoration.

Students of the period will find the book a stimulating biography of the man who was the lone break in the chain of Stuart monarchy from Elizabeth to William of Orange. Those less familiar with the complex seventeenth century will enjoy contact with a singular personality.