Although Oliver Cromwell was essentially a man of action, he was also very much a man of the word, whether written or spoken, informal or ceremonial. Fortunately many of his speeches have survived, giving the modern reader the opportunity to glimpse how Cromwell grappled with the unique and unprecedented problems of guiding the country following the first and only execution of an English monarch. Ivan Roots has here gathered together those speeches and recorded conversations of Cromwell that chart the course of his career, that throw light on Cromwell the man as well as on Cromwell the politician, and that illuminate the political and constitutional history of the Protectorate. In the speeches there is, still, as Carlyle put it, 'more of Oliver than in most of the history books about him'.