Pursuing his interest in the power of the past in 17th-century England, Nuefeld explores public memories of England's civil wars over the two generations after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. He finds that the public remembering of the English civil wars and Interregnum was not caught up in re-fighting the old struggle, but in commending and justifying, or contesting and attacking, the Restoration settlements. These settlements endured for nearly two centuries, he says, supported by a memory of the 1640s and 1650s that was used to show that Puritans--also known as Dissenters--could not be trusted with power. Annotation ©2014 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)