费尔斯和他的《克伦威尔传》

１７世纪以来，在总数约达 ４ ０００种有关克伦威尔的著作中，查理·费尔斯的《克伦威尔传》被公认为是最好的一本，它已被列为世界古典丛书之一。此书取材丰富，考订严谨；论述清晰、扼要。但也存在一些明显缺陷，书中忽略１７世纪革命时代的社会经济背景和革命的阶级斗争性质；对革命中的激进民主派的作用予以贬抑；对克伦威尔的功绩不适当地加以夸大。这些是由著者所处的时代环境和社会地位造成的。今天在评论克伦威尔时，应把他放到当时的时代，同时把我们在现实中所经历的经验、教训，用以去分析历史人物的行为和思想实质。

C. H. Firth and His Oliver Cromwell

Since the 17th century, there have been about 4 000 books on Oliver Cromwell, among which Oliver Cromwell is the accepted best, by C. H. Firth. The work is rich in its extensive and accurate materials, precise in textual research, and clear and concise in narration. However, the work also has some shortcomings. It neglects the social-economic backgroun and the character of class struggle during the 17th century English Revolution. It is negative towards the role of the radical democrats. It exaggerated the contributions of Cromwell. All this is the result of the conditions and social position of the time in which the author lives. Today, when Cromwell is evaluated, he should be looked at from the perspective of the time in which he lived. At the same time, our experience and lessons from real life should be used to analyze the behavior and ideological nature of historical figures.