Commonwealth Principles

TRAMA

Examining works which supported the abolition of monarchy and its replacement with a republic, Jonathan Scott ventures beyond existing studies of individual authors or specific themes to offer the first general account of an influential body of writing. Poets such as John Milton as well as journalists, political leaders, theorists and whig martyrs were among those contributing to the cultural ferment. The result is a major contribution to our understanding of seventeenth-century England, from one of its foremost historians.

NOTE EDITORE

The republican writing of the English revolution has attracted a major scholarly literature. Yet there has been no single treatment of the subject as a whole, nor has it been adequately related to the larger upheaval from which it emerged, or to the larger body of radical thought of which it became the most influential component. Commonwealth Principles addresses these needs, and Jonathan Scott goes beyond existing accounts organized around a single key concept (whether constitutional, linguistic or moral) or author (usually James Harrington) to analyse this body of writing in full context. Linking various social, political and intellectual agendas Professor Scott explains why, when classical republicanism came to England, it did so in the moral service of an explicitly religious revolution. The resulting ideology hinged not upon political language, or constitutional form, but Christian humanist moral philosophy applied in the practical context of an attempted radical reformation of manners.

SOMMARIO

Preface; Introduction: English republicanism; Part I. Contexts: 1. Classical republicanism; 2. The cause of God; 3. Discourses of a commonwealth; 4. Old worlds and new; Part II. Analysis: 5. The political theory of rebellion; 6. Constitutions; 7. Liberty; 8. Virtue; 9. The politics of time; 10. Empire; Part III. Chronology: 11. Republicans and Levellers, 1603–49; 12. The English republic, 1649–53; 13. Healing and settling, 1653–8; 14. The good old cause, 1658–60; 15. Anatomies of tyranny, 1660–83; 16. Republicans and Whigs, 1680–1725; Appendix: 'a pretty story of horses' (May 1654); Bibliography; Index.

PREFAZIONE

The English revolution produced a vibrant print culture. Poets (famously John Milton), journalists, political leaders, theorists and Whig martyrs were among those contributing to the cultural ferment in support of republican ideas, analysed in Commonwealth Principles by Jonathan Scott, one of the foremost historians of the period writing today.

AUTORE

Jonathan Scott is Carroll Amundson Professor of British History at the University of Pittsburgh. A New Zealander by birth, he taught for many years at the University of Cambridge, before moving to the USA in 2002.

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI

• Condizione: Nuovo
• ISBN: 9780521843751
• Dimensioni: 229 x 27 x 152 mm Ø 780 gr
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pagine Arabe: 416