The Storm over the gentry was a major historiographical debate in the 1940s and 1950s among scholars over the role of the gentry in causing the English Civil War of 1642 to 1651. (The British gentry comprised the rich landowners who were not members of the titled nobility.)
Economic historian R.H. Tawney had suggested in 1941 that there was a major economic crisis for the nobility in the 16th and 17th centuries and that the rapidly-rising gentry class was demanding a share of power. When the aristocracy resisted, Tawney argued, the gentry launched the civil war.R. H. Tawney, "The Rise of the Gentry, 1558-1640," Economic History Review (1941) 11#1 pp. 1-38 in JSTOR
Lawrence Stone, in a 1948 article,Stone, "The Anatomy of the Elizabethan Aristocracy," Economic History Review (1948) 18#1 pp. 1-53 in JSTOR made an effort to use statistical data and methods to prove Tawney's thesis. However, Stone's argument was marred by methodological mistakes, and he came under heavy attack from Hugh Trevor-Roper and others.H. R. Trevor-Roper, "The Elizabethan Aristocracy: An Anatomy Anatomized," Economic History Review (1951) 3#3 pp. 279-298 in JSTOR Trevor-Roper argued that the gentry was declining and so tried to improve its fortune through the law or through court office. Christopher Thompson, for example, showed that the peerage's real income was higher in 1602 than in 1534 and grew substantially by 1641. Many other scholars entered the fray and produced many studies concerning related questions.Conrad Russell, The Crisis of Parliaments: English History, 1509-1660 (1971) p 197
In 1961 American scholar J. H. Hexter developed a quite widely-accepted view that largely ended the debate by maintaining that neither a rise nor a decline of the gentry could explain the Civil War; he claimed that such theories could explain only a "deliberate revolution", which did not take place.J.H. Hexter, 'Storm over the Gentry', in Reappraisals in History (1961) pp 117-62
See also Historiography of the United Kingdom Stuart period
References
Further reading Coleman, D.C. "The 'Gentry' Controversy and the Aristocracy in Crisis, 1558–1641." History 51, no. 172 (1966): 165-78. http://www.jstor.org/24404336.
Hexter, J.H. On History (1979) pp. 149-236. Hexter, Jack H. Reappraisals in history: New views on history and society in early modern Europe (1961) Loades, David, ed. Reader's Guide to British History (2003) 2:1200-1206 MacDonald, William W. "English Historians Repeating Themselves: The Refining of the Whig Interpretation of the English Revolution and Civil War." Journal of Thought (1972): 166-175. online Richardson, R.C. The Debate on the English Revolution (Issues in Historiography) (1998). pp 98-132. Stone, Lawrence. Social Change and Revolution in England, 1540–1640 (1965) Stone, Lawrence. The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558–1641 (1965), 841pp
Trevor-Roper, R. H. "The Gentry 1540-1640." Economic History Review 1 (1953): 1-55. Tawney, R. H. "The rise of the gentry, 1558-1640." Economic History Review 11.1 (1941): 1-38. online; launched a historiographical debate Tawney, R. H. "The rise of the gentry: a postscript." Economic History Review 7.1 (1954): 91-97. online