Samuel Rawson Gardiner was an English historian, who specialized in 17th-century English history, and is regarded as the foremost historian of the Puritan revolution and the English Civil War.

One of the most complete histories of this inter-Christian war, fought mainly in the heartland of present-day Germany, in which up to 40 percent of the population was killed.

Samuel Rawson Gardiner (1829-1902) was a Victorian historian of the seventeenth century, noted for his use of and editorial work on primary sources. This ten-volume edition of his history of the period 1603 to 1642 was published in 1883-4.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.