The Glorious Revolution was, according to Lord Macaulay, a conservative readjustment of the English polity, in which the authoritarian excesses of the Catholic James ii were undone in a manner that reflected the immemorial continuity of English traditions of liberty. This is the nub of the ‘Whig’ version of the events of 1688 (which might also be usefully described as an English nationalist interpretation). But it is certainly not the Glorious Revolution according to Steve Pincus. 1688 is revisionism on a grand scale, in which the Glorious Revolution is convincingly recast as a radical, violent and above all popular upheaval; the traditional depiction of 1688 as a peaceful event shaped by the English political elite is comprehensively bludgeoned to death by this massive slab of a book. Previous reviewers have noted that those who would take Pincus to task had best be on solid ground: 1688 rests on a formidable empirical bedrock, as a decade's-worth of research is carefully recorded in 128 pages of notes. Traditional accounts of the Glorious Revolution have adopted narrow chronological and geographical perspectives that have resulted in narrow interpretations. The argument of 1688, on the other hand, rests upon a striking reinterpretation of later Stuart England as a period of rapid change, for according to Pincus, ‘the Revolution of 1688–89 was the culmination of a long and vitriolic argument about how to transform England into a modern nation’ (p. 486). The revolution was the event that secured that transformation, and the great achievement of this complex and subtle study lies in the manner in which it boldly reveals the ideological basis of the so-called ‘Glorious Revolution’. James ii was not merely advocating traditional Protestant bugbears of popery and arbitrary power: his associations with France had left him an ideologically committed Gallican Catholic, who, as king, was intent on recreating the absolutism of Louis xiv in England. In order to do so, he presided over a massive expansion of the apparatus of the state, most especially the military, but this inadvertently provided a focal point for the ire of those who sought to oppose him. Pincus uses this to suggest a theoretical model for the study of revolution: is a precondition of revolution precisely the form of modernisation that, he argues, was ongoing in England prior to 1685? James, and both his Whig and Tory opponents, are depicted here as modernisers advocating rival programmes for a contested future. James's alignment with France was also shaped by his desire to go to war against England's main trading rival: the Dutch. Consequently, William of Orange, perceiving this danger, made the most of the opportunity presented by the massive popular rejection of James's authority revealed by Pincus. But the successful Whig ‘revolutionaries’ were themselves committed to a programme that sought to radically alter England's role in the world; most obviously by pursuing an aggressive foreign policy aimed at securing England from the ‘universal monarchy’ of the French. This, in turn, forced a radical domestic realignment with far-reaching implications, as the ideological shifts born of the necessity to pay for this laid the foundations of commercial capitalist society in England. Pincus has reinterpreted the Glorious Revolution as a violent, popular and ‘transformative’ event, one shaped by the currents of a much wider world – in cultural, economic, and ideological terms, as much as geographical – than has previously been suggested. 1688 is a compelling and often brilliant performance. It is an exhaustive account; but it is also exhausting. This beautifully produced book is perhaps too long and too repetitive, despite the fact that it is extremely well written and contains some superb chapters: those on ‘English society’, ‘Catholic modernity’, and ‘Political economy’ are especially noteworthy. But the sheer size of this impressively holistic study makes it hard to digest at one sitting. 1688 is a book to revisit and reflect upon, for there is so much to ponder here: this mammoth work has obvious implications for the histories of England, Ireland and Scotland, of the Atlantic world, of revolution, of liberal democracy and, indeed, of capitalism itself. Having reclaimed the Glorious Revolution from its more parochial defenders, Steve Pincus has given it back to the rest of us, to make of it what we will.