sylvar

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.