Seeking background information on 1600s English history

During the drive home from a doctor's appointment (about which I'll write more later), I listened to the podcast of a BBC In Our Time show about 17th-century print culture in England and how the rise of literacy and printed material affected the (English) Civil War. segnbora will probably enjoy listening to the show, which is available here in mp3 format. (A complete podcast feed of In Our Time is here.)

I realized that, since European history was optional in high school, I am ignorant of some pretty basic facts about the period. While I'm sure I could look up individual facts, I'd like a recommendation from anyone who knows of a lively, readable book that would explain things like these:
( Questions )

If anyone feels like explaining this stuff, that's cool too, but I assume it will be most expedient to give me the title of a book.

Another senseless waste of Dewey namespace

712: Landscape architecture and design
713: Landscape architecture and design for roadways and trafficways

Are you kidding? All known and unknown human diseases are crammed into 616, and we're using 713 for putting flowers in median strips?!

(And if we're actually supposed to use 625.77 for that, what the heck is 713 really for?)