Book excerpt: Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England, 1558-1689 explores an issue that is key to early modern political, religious and cultural British history. Traditionally regarded as a period of expanding and extended liberalism, as superstition and received truth were overthrown, this book argues conversely that one set of intolerant orthodoxies was replaced by another. It examines what toleration means now and meant then, within a European context. Introduced with a survey of the theory, including the writings of Locke and Hobbes, the book then studies the Stuarts, the Puritan Revolution and the Restoration. For those readers interested in British history. Also available in Hardcover - 0-582-30465-2, $ 89.95Y.