This concentrates on the history of the period 1640-1649 from the perspective of local inhabitants in the towns and countryside. The initial aim is to look at pre-civil war developments that help to explain the outbreak of the civil war. Particular attention will be paid to religious conflicts between puritans and Laudians, the growth of hostility to Charles I and the court, the social divisions that led to ‘a crisis of order’ and the importance of localism and loyalty to the ‘county community’. The events of 1640-42 will then be analysed in depth to show the interaction of local and national politics and to understand the reasons for sidetaking and neutralism in 1642. The course of the war will be investigated through looking at key battles (particularly Marston Moor and Naseby) and sieges, at the ways in which both sides extracted resources from the civilian population, the destructive effects of the war and the reaction against these in the ‘Clubman’ risings. Finally some of the consequences of the war will be studied through investigating the emergence of the Levellers, puritan schemes for religious and moral reform and the impact on local order, the family and women. These themes will be pursued through seminar discussion and detailed work on letters, diaries and other texts.