Moving from the English Civil War through the American Revolution to the American Civil War Philips traces the political and religious threads that unify and distinguish these conflicts. He provides excellent summaries and expositions of the unique themes and politics of each of these conflicts. He then maps the trails of religion and class from the English Civil war in the 17th century thru the American Revolution and on to the American Civil War in the mid-19th century, showing how many 'American' ideas and controversies can be traced back to the religious and political contests of Great Britain.  Many of these conflicts persist through to modern times, but often with their origins clouded or forgotten.

Gore Vidal holds a similar view:

"From the beginning social differences not only between New Englanders and Virginians but within the two sections reflected the seventeenth-century division in England between Round­heads (Puritan Protestants of republican tendency) and Cavaliers (who were-or saw themselves as-landowning aristocrats, tending to monarchy). The subsequent English civil war was won by Roundheads, and the Divine Right of kings fell with King Charles's head, to be replaced by a quasi-republic with a hereditary protector, who, in turn, was superseded by the Restoration of the now-secular King Charles II. During the troubles, many edgy Cavaliers and disappointed Roundheads moved on to America, where New England got the dour Roundheads and the South got the Cavaliers or would-be Cavaliers."  Inventing a Nation

Arrogant Capital

Wealth & Democracy