The ‘British Problem’ has come to dominate the historiographical agenda of the three kingdoms in the seventeenth century. This volume challenges traditional interpretations and offers constructive suggestions about how the ‘New British Histories’ might be fruitfully re-appraised and situated in wider geographical, methodological and cultural contexts. By asking pertinent ‘awkward’ questions the book explores the relations within, between and beyond the three kingdoms and accentuate the positive aspects of ‘awkwardness’. These essays offer fresh and exciting research, often by younger scholars, and innovative insights from regional, national, and international perspectives.