This book highlights the ways in which England became a modern society between 1640 and 1700.A Nation Transformed highlights the ways in which England was transformed during the second half of the seventeenth century. In sharp contrast to those who have emphasized continuity and the persistence of the ancien régime, the contributors argue that England in 1700 was profoundly different from what it had been in 1640. Essays in the volume deal with changes in natural philosophy, literature, religion, politics, political thought, and political economy, each illuminating the ways in which early modern England became one of the first modern societies.A Nation Transformed highlights the ways in which England was transformed during the second half of the seventeenth century. In sharp contrast to those who have emphasized continuity and the persistence of the ancien régime, the contributors argue that England in 1700 was profoundly different from what it had been in 1640. Essays in the volume deal with changes in natural philosophy, literature, religion, politics, political thought, and political economy, each illuminating the ways in which early modern England became one of the first modern societies.A Nation Transformed highlights the ways in which England was transformed during the second half of the seventeenth century. In sharp contrast to those who have emphasized continuity and the persistence of the ancien régime, the contributors argue that England in 1700 was profoundly different from what it had been in 1640. Essays in the volume deal with changes in natural philosophy, literature, religion, politics, political thought, and political economy, each illuminating the ways in which early modern England became one of the first modern societies.Introduction: modernity and later seventeenth-century England Alan Houston and Steve Pincus; 1. The question of secularisation Blair Worden; 2. 'Meer religion' and the 'church-state' of Restoration EnlĂ"