Henry Care (1646-88) was a Restoration publicist from middle-class London who made his living by his skillful pen during the Exclusion Crisis and the reign of King James II. In both eras he developed a large following in the popular press. Although he is little known today, both friends and enemies in his time regarded him as someone to be reckoned with. The Stuart kings also appreciated the influence and potential threat of Care and of the press in general, and they sought to restrain him and to tighten controls on the press, even as they themselves used propagandists to combat both.

By exploring Care's life and work from his anonymous origins to his eventual celebrity as a polemicist first for the Whigs and later for James II, and by examining the influence of his ideas in the American colonies, Schwoerer offers new insights into how the nonelite participated in and affected politics. Care's career illuminates many issues currently of interest in the study of Restoration England, including print culture, the uses of law, women's history, attitudes toward religious liberty and toleration, the Exclusion Crisis, and the Revolution of 1688--89. Using Care's life as a window into the period, Schwoerer contributes significantly to the ongoing reevaluation and rethinking of the Restoration.