Civic Humanism has been one of the most influential concepts in the history of ideas ever since the pioneering work of Hans Baron and J. G. A. Pocock. This book reassesses Renaissance republican thinkers in relation to the medieval and early modern traditions of political thought and proposes new understandings of the evolution of important republican concepts. The distinguished team of American and European political theorists and historians together contribute a distinctive and significant addition to the study of republican political ideology.

This volume draws on the expertise of both historians and literary critics to examine the classical sources of Milton's republicanism, the genesis of that republicanism in the 1640s, its disappointment in the 1650s and its presence in his work (particularly in Paradise Lost) after the Restoration. Milton's prose works and his poetry are given equal coverage, making this the first collaborative volume to attempt a comprehensive thematic assessment of his political and literary career.

Pluralism and the Personality of the State tells the history of English political thought from 1900 to 1933, concentrating on the work of the political pluralists and their attack on the idea of state sovereignty. It explores the background to their work in the ideas of the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the German jurist Otto von Gierke. It also looks at what wider relevance their ideas might have today, particularly with regard to the question of the relation between the state and voluntary associations.

This major work from Quentin Skinner presents a fundamental reappraisal of the political theory of Hobbes. Using, for the first time, the full range of manuscript as well as printed sources, it documents an entirely new view of Hobbes' intellectual development, and reexamines the shift from a humanist to a scientific culture in European moral and political thought. By examining Hobbes' philosophy against the background of his humanist education, Professor Skinner rescues this most difficult and challenging of political philosophers from the intellectual isolation in which he is so often...

Did science and philosophy develop differently in ancient Greece and ancient China? If so, can we say why? This book consists of a series of detailed studies of cosmology, natural philosophy, mathematics and medicine that suggest the answer to the first question is yes. To answer the second, the author relates the science produced in each ancient civilization first to the values of the society in question and then to the institutions within which the scientists and philosophers worked.

Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence (1908) remains a controversial text to this day. It unashamedly advocates the use of violence as a means of putting an end to the corrupt politics of bourgeois democracy and of bringing down capitalism. It is both dangerous and fascinating, of enduring importance and interest to all those concerned about the nature of modern politics. This new student edition of Sorel's classic text is accompanied by notes, chronology, and bibliography, as well as a concise introduction to the context and content of this work.

Riches and Poverty explores an influential idea in political economy. The work of Adam Smith provided a key for studying the rich and poor and assessing the American and French revolutions. Meanwhile Britain embarked on its career as the first manufacturing nation, and the debate on poverty provoked an intellectual rift between Malthus and the Lake poets that continues to influence our perceptions of cultural history. Donald Winch has written a compelling narrative of these developments, which emphasizes throughout the moral and political bearings of economic ideas.

This book reassesses the relationship between Enlightenment and religion in England. It has long been accepted that liberal, rational dissenters developed an Enlightenment agenda, but most literature on this topic is out of date. These interdisciplinary essays provide a fresh analysis of rational dissent within English Enlightenment culture from a variety of viewpoints. Its wide perspective and new research make Enlightenment and Religion an important and original contribution to eighteenth-century studies.

With the notion of individual rights as important in moral and political theory now as it has ever been, there is renewed speculation over the origins and development of this concept. Liberty, Right and Nature is a work of unusual scope and power that takes a fresh look at this intellectual tradition, and deploys an enormous range of further sources in order to reassess our understanding of its development, beginning with the texts of the thirteenth century poverty controversy and ending with a discussion of Thomas Hobbes' theory of natural rights.

This is a major new student edition of the text described as "the first modern classic of English history." Francis Bacon's insight into human motives, his life-long experience of politics and government, and his remarkable literary skills, render this History of the Reign of King Henry VII a major work of English literature and an important document in the history of political thought. The edition also includes other relevant writings by Bacon, generous editorial footnotes explaining the historical and political issues of the period, and a substantial glossary.