Reviews
"[A] very ambitious and rewarding book. Any student of 17th-century history will learn a great deal from it." ---Pranav Jain, Journal of the History of Ideas Blog, "Laudably cool-headed. . . . McDowell manages to shine new light even on some of the best-trodden territory. . . . [A] tour de force." ---Roberta Klimt, Times Literary Supplement, "[McDowell] transforms our understanding of Milton's emergent worldview with intelligence, authority and considerable flair." ---Rhodri Lewis, Prospect, One cannot do justice to McDowell's achievement in this limited space. . . . Every page is rich in valuable information about Milton. . . . [A] major, innovative contribution to Milton studies., "McDowell's new study, Poet of Revolution , tries to account for Milton's transformation from 'obscure student poet in the early 1630s, albeit one with grand Virgilian pretensions, to a leading oppositional prose polemicist as civil war broke out a decade later.'" ---Maggie Kilgour, London Review of Books, "A rich and detailed account of Milton's 'intellectual and political formation.' . . . [McDowell] brings Milton alive for readers, describing his material life, where he lived and travelled, what he read and puzzled over, and whom he engaged with at school and abroad." ---Amy Gais, Review of Politics, "Make room for Professor McDowell's work, erudite, engaged, original, and illuminating." ---Paul Hammond, Seventeenth Century, "This new book by Nicholas McDowell is superior to anything that I've yet read." ---Paul Lay, FiveBooks, "Nicholas McDowell's erudite Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton helps us understand why and how Milton pursued poetic glory. . . . [He] skillfully integrates Milton's literary world with his dangerous, complex, and rapidly changing world of religion and politics." ---A.M. Juster, Los Angeles Review of Books, "One of my favorite non-fiction works this year. . . . Every page is enjoyable." ---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution, "McDowell's erudite Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton helps us understand why and how Milton pursued poetic glory. . . . [He] skillfully integrates Milton's literary world with his dangerous, complex, and rapidly changing world of religion and politics." ---A. M. Juster, Los Angeles Review of Books, "[For McDowell] the crucial question is the one that has defined and divided Milton scholarship from the beginning, the question of politics. . . . We need not wonder why Milton becomes a radical, [McDowell] suggest[s], for Milton himself tells us why: the poet made the polemicist and the writer the revolutionary." ---Catherine Nicholson, New York Review of Books, "Nicholas McDowell's new study, Poet of Revolution , tries to account for Milton's transformation from 'obscure student poet in the early 1630s, albeit one with grand Virgilian pretensions, to a leading oppositional prose polemicist as civil war broke out a decade later'." ---Maggie Kilgour, London Review of Books, "[McDowell] transforms our understanding of Milton's emergent worldview with intelligence, authority and considerable flair. . . . Poet of Revolution will be the standard account of its subject, and the starting point for further discussion of Milton's early life, for a long time to come" ---Rhodri Lewis, Prospect, "[A] really brilliant survey of Milton's formative years, which makes convincing sense of all the seeming contradictions in his intellectual development, and of his character both as polemicist and poet." ---Tom Holland, author of Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind,, "Thoroughly researched and elegantly written. . . . A wonderful book." ---Joad Raymond, History Today, "[A] tour-de-force pilgrimage through Milton's formative years. . . . Poet of Revolution is a heroic work, a judicious and well-written biography of England's greatest poet." ---Paul Krause, Merion West, "McDowell's Poet of Revolution is a Miltonist's life of Milton; for him the crucial question is the one that has defined and divided Milton scholarship from the beginning, the question of politics." ---Catherine Nicholson, New York Review of Books, "This is an important work, possibly the most significant contribution to Milton studies in more than a decade." ---Geoff Ridden, Early Modern Literary Studies, "McDowell's life is thoroughly researched and elegantly written. It is accessible to the general reader . . . It is a wonderful book, and I look forward to the second volume." ---Joad Raymond, History Today
