Milton and the People examines John Milton's beliefs in the role of the people, tracing the twists and turns of Milton's terminology and rhetoric as he grapples with the problem that the people have a calling to which they seem not to be adequate. When Milton sets out an argument for the superiority of the virtuous minority in his Defensio Secunda, Hammond observes that the shift from the subjunctive to the indicative in Latin exemplifies the triumph of hope over experience (p. 176). It is details like that, so pellucidly expressed, that make this book a great read.