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Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought is firmly established as the major student series of texts in political theory. It aims to make available all the most important texts in the history of political thought, from ancient Greece to the twentieth century, from throughout the world and from every political tradition. All the familiar classic texts are included, but the series seeks at the same time to enlarge the conventional canon through a global scope and by incorporating an extensive range of less well-known works and previously marginalised voices, many of them never before available in a modern English edition. Where possible, the texts are published in complete and unabridged form, and translations are specially commissioned for the series. However, where appropriate, abridged or tightly focused and thematic collections are offered instead. Each volume contains a critical introduction together with chronologies, biographical sketches, a guide to further reading and any necessary glossaries and textual apparatus. Overall, the series aims to provide the reader with an outline of the entire evolution of political thinking on a global scale.

  • General Editors: Quentin Skinner, Queen Mary University of London
  • Editorial Boards: Michael Cook, Princeton University, New Jersey, Hannah Dawson, King’s College London, Adom Getachew, University of Chicago, Emma Hunter, University of Edinburgh, Gabriel Paquette, University of Oregon, Andrew Sartori, New York University, Hilde de Weerdt, Universiteit Leiden

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118 results in Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought

Page 6 of 6

Bolingbroke: Political Writings
  • Henry Bolingbroke
  • Edited by David Armitage
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    11 September 1997
  • Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, was one of the most creative political thinkers in eighteenth-century Britain. In this volume, modernised and fully annotated texts of his most important political works, the Dissertation upon Parties, the letter, 'On the Spirit of Patriotism', and The Idea of the Patriot King, are brought together for the first time. Bolingbroke was the first major thinker to face the long-term economic and political consequences of the Glorious Revolution, particularly the creation of the first modern system of party politics. In these works he attempted to forge an ideology of opposition to attack the Whig oligarchy of Sir Robert Walpole. His analyses of constitutional government and the party system are still relevant to the dilemmas of modern democratic politics, as are his recommendations for a patriotic commitment to the common good and the necessity of a non-partisan executive.

Utopias of the British Enlightenment
  • Edited by Gregory Claeys
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    07 July 1994
  • This is a major collection of eighteenth-century British utopias. Seven tracts, spanning the century, show how the image of the ideal society was used as a form of social criticism, and particularly as a means of focussing on ideas of progress and commercial development. Radical and republican thinking about property ownership, social equality, and commerce and luxury - of particular relevance to the critique of 'corruption' in this period - coexists with nostalgic and conservative notions of the ideal hierarchical community. The introduction, which examines the relationship of these tracts to the political thought of the period, shows how issues and developments of key importance, from the debate surrounding the French Revolution to the origins of Romanticism and early socialism, are illuminated by an understanding of the utopian tradition.

Vitoria: Political Writings
  • Francisco de Vitoria
  • Edited by Anthony Pagden, Jeremy Lawrance
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    31 October 1991
  • Francisco Vitoria was the earliest and arguably the most important of the Thomist political philosophers of the Counter-Reformation. Not only did he write important essays on civil and ecclesiastical power, but he became celebrated for his defence of the new world Indians against the imperialism of his own master, the King of Spain. Vitoria's political works are thus of great importance for an understanding both of the rise of modern absolutism, and the debate about the emergent imperialism of the European powers. His works are also unusually accessible, since they survive mainly in the form of 'relectiones', or summaries delivered at the end of his lecture courses on law and theology at the University of Salamanca. Translated here into English for the first time, these texts comprise the core of Vitoria's thought, and will be of interest to specialists in political theory and the history of ideas, ecclesiastical history, and the history of early modern Spain. A comprehensive introduction, a chronology, and a bibliography accompany the texts.

John of Salisbury: Policraticus
  • John of Salisbury
  • Edited by Cary J. Nederman
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    26 October 1990
  • John of Salisbury (c.1115–1180) was the foremost political theorist of his age. He was trained in scholastic theology and philosophy at Paris, and his writings are invaluable for summarising many of the metaphysical speculations of his time. The Policraticus is his main work, and is regarded as the first complete work of political theory to be written in the Latin Middle Ages. Cary Nederman's 1991 edition and translation is primarily aimed at undergraduate students of the history of political thought and medieval history. His translation shows how important this text is in understanding the mores, forms of conduct and beliefs of the most powerful and learned segments of twelfth-century Western Europe.

King James VI and I: Political Writings
  • King James VI and I
  • Edited by Johann P. Sommerville
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    12 January 1995
  • James VI and I united the crowns of England and Scotland. His books are fundamental sources of the principles which underlay the union. In particular, his Basilikon Doron was a best-seller in England and circulated widely on the Continent. Among the most important and influential British writings of their period, the king's works shed light on the political climate of Shakespeare's England and the intellectual background to the civil wars which afflicted Britain in the mid-seventeenth century. James' political philosophy was a moderated absolutism, with an emphasis on the monarch's duty to rule according to law and the public good. Locke quoted his speech to parliament of 1610 approvingly, and Hobbes likewise praised 'our most wise king'. This edition is the first to draw on all the early texts of James' books, with an introduction setting them in their historical context.

Leibniz: Political Writings
  • 2nd edition
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
  • Edited by Patrick Riley
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    28 October 1988
  • Leibniz's political and ethical writing long has been neglected, and with this new edition Professor Riley makes available the most representative pieces from Leibniz's political theory. This new edition, specially prepared for this series, is the first to make a considerable number of Leibniz's writings available in English, and includes three previously unpublished manuscripts, a selection of political letters, an introduction, notes, and a critical biography.

Baxter: A Holy Commonwealth
  • Richard Baxter
  • Edited by William Lamont
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    28 April 1994
  • A Holy Commonwealth was written in 1659 by the Puritan minister Richard Baxter (1615–91), and proved to be the most controversial of all his works. He publicly repudiated it in 1670, and in 1683 the Oxford University authorities ordered it to be part of a book-burning that included the works of Hobbes and Milton. The scandal that surrounded it has obscured its merits as the most candid of confessions as to why a conservative Puritan fought for Parliament in the Civil War and gave his support to the Cromwells. The views it expresses are at variance with the cautious explanations given in Baxter's later memoirs (now seen as a less reliable source than past commentators have presumed). This edition of A Holy Commonwealth makes available to modern readers a work which offers a unique perspective on the relation between church and magistrate and the origins of the English Civil War.

Hobhouse: Liberalism and Other Writings
  • L. T. Hobhouse
  • Edited by James Meadowcroft
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    27 January 1994
  • L. T. Hobhouse's Liberalism (1911), which has acquired the status of a modern classic, is the most enduring statement of the political principles which animated British liberal social reformers in the early years of the twentieth century. While written in a popular style, it is actually a theoretical work of some subtlety, combining an historical analysis of the evolution of liberal doctrine with a philosophical discussion of the character of liberal belief, and proposing a reformulation of liberalism which emphasises community, individual welfare rights, and an activist state. This 1994 edition of the work includes a number of his other writings from the same period, and will be of interest to a broad range of students and scholars in politics and the history of political thought.

Hume: Political Essays
  • David Hume
  • Edited by Knud Haakonssen
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    07 July 1994
  • David Hume is commonly known as one of the greatest philosophers to write in English. He was also one of the foremost political and economic theorists and one of the finest historians of the eighteenth century. His political essays reflect the entire range of his intellectual engagement with politics - as political philosophy, political observation and political history - and function as an extension of and supplement to works such as his Treatise of Human Nature and his History of England. The twenty-seven most important essays are presented in this fully annotated edition, together with excerpts from the History of England which illuminate their context. This major addition to the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, philosophy and the history of ideas.

The English Levellers
  • Edited by Andrew Sharp
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    11 June 1998
  • The Levellers were a crucial component of a radically democratic movement during the civil wars in seventeenth-century England. This was to be democratic at a time when the very idea of democracy conjured up nothing good; with its suggestion of anarchy and the 'levelling' of distinctions in rank and of property, even the holding of women in common. This collection of thirteen fully annotated Leveller writings, including their famous Agreements of the People, is important as a contribution not only to the understanding of the English civil wars, but also of democratic theory. The editor's introduction sets the Leveller ideas in their context and, together with a chronology, short biographies of the leading figures and a guide to further reading, will be of interest to students of the English civil wars, the history of political thought and the history of democratic ideas.

Marx: Early Political Writings
  • Karl Marx
  • Edited by Joseph J. O'Malley
  • Assisted by Richard A. Davis
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    24 June 1994
  • The political doctrine of Karl Marx is to be found in a broad range of both published and unpublished writings. This volume, the first of two which together span his entire output, presents his early texts of 1843–7, which predate the Communist Manifesto. excerpts from the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and from the Paris Notebooks, Points on the State and Bourgeois Society and other writings are newly translated and arranged in a sequence that illuminates the development of Marx's thought, while the introduction discusses the intellectual context of the theories he constructed. A chronology of Marx's life and career and an annotated bibliography complete a volume which will be an invaluable guide to the formation of one of the most influential doctrines in the history of political thought.

Condorcet: Political Writings
  • Edited by Steven Lukes, Nadia Urbinati
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    19 April 2012
  • Nicolas de Condorcet (1743–1794), the innovating founder of mathematical thinking in politics, was the last great philosophe of the French Enlightenment and a central figure in the early years of the French Revolution. His political writings give a compelling vision of human progress across world history and express the hopes of that time in the future perfectibility of man. This volume contains a revised translation of 'The Sketch', written while in hiding from the Jacobin Terror, together with lesser-known writings on the emancipation of women, the abolition of slavery, the meanings of freedom and despotism and reflections on revolutionary violence. The introduction by Steven Lukes and Nadia Urbinati sets these works in context and shows why Condorcet is of real interest today as we reinterpret the meaning of Enlightenment, the very idea of progress and the founding ideas of social democracy.

Augustine: Political Writings
  • Augustine
  • Edited by E. M. Atkins, R. J. Dodaro
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    11 January 2001
  • This collection brings together thirty-five letters and sermons of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430 AD, that deal with political matters. The letters and sermons are both practical and principled and treat many essential themes in Augustine's thought, including the responsibilities of citizenship, the relationship between the church and secular authority, religious coercion, and war and peace. These texts complement Augustine's classic The City of God against the Pagans (also available in the Cambridge Texts series), and give students direct insight into the political and social world of late antiquity with which Augustine was immediately involved. The slave trade, tax collection, clerical harassment and murder are amongst the topics with which he deals. The volume contains clear, accurate modern translations, together with a concise introduction and informative notes designed to aid the student encountering Augustine's life and thought for the first time.

Ferguson: An Essay on the History of Civil Society
  • Adam Ferguson
  • Edited by Fania Oz-Salzberger
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    01 February 1996
  • Adam Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society (first published in 1767) is a classic of the Scottish - and European - Enlightenment. Drawing on such diverse sources as classical authors and contemporary travel literature, Ferguson offers a complex model of historical advance which challenges both Hume's and Smith's embrace of modernity and the primitivism of Rousseau. Ferguson combines a subtle analysis of the emergence of modern commercial society with a critique of its abandonment of civic and communal virtues. Central to Ferguson's theory of citizenship are the themes of conflict, play, political participation and military valour. The Essay is a bold and novel attempt to reclaim the tradition of active, virtuous citizenship and apply it to the modern state.

Astell: Political Writings
  • Mary Astell
  • Edited by Patricia Springborg
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    10 October 1996
  • The writings of the High Church Tory pamphleteer Mary Astell (1666–1731) are a remarkable and underestimated contribution to the constitutional debates which ushered in the modern liberal democratic state. An interlocutor with Swift and Defoe, Astell was perhaps the first systematic critic of Locke's writings, something which has been overlooked in the considerable literature evaluating the reception of Locke's Two Treatises on Government. Astell's political pamphlets Reflections upon Marriage, A Fair Way with Dissenters, and An Impartial Enquiry into the Origins of Rebellion ran to five editions in her lifetime, but have never been reprinted in their entirety. This new edition makes accessible the major works of a fine English stylist and important political theorist.

Dante: Monarchy
  • Dante
  • Edited by Prue Shaw
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    30 May 1996
  • This book, first published in 1996, was the first new translation for forty years of a fascinating work of political theory. Dante's Monarchy addresses the fundamental question of what form of political organization best suits human nature; it embodies a political vision of startling originality and power, and illuminates the intellectual interests and achievements of one of the world's great poets. Prue Shaw's translation is accompanied by a full introduction and notes, which provide a complete guide to the text, and which place Monarchy in the context of Dante's life and work.

Harrington: 'The Commonwealth of Oceana' and 'A System of Politics'
  • James Harrington
  • Edited by J. G. A. Pocock
  • Published online:
    05 January 2012
    Print publication:
    20 August 1992
  • James Harrington's brief career as a political and historical theorist spans the last years of the Cromwellian Protectorate and the Restoration of 1660. This 1992 volume comprises the first and last of Harrington's writings. Harrington was the first theorist to interpret the English Civil Wars as a revolution, the result of a long-term process of social change which led to the decay of the old political order. The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) is a fictionalised presentation of English history up to the victory of the New Model Army, explaining the fall of the monarchy and proposing a republic to replace it. A System of Politics, written after the Restoration, is a scheme of history and political philosophy erected on the foundations of his previous works. Professor Pocock's introduction emphasises Harrington's place as a pivotal figure in the history of English political thought. This edition also contains a chronology of events in Harrington's life and a guide to further reading.

Austin: The Province of Jurisprudence Determined
  • John Austin
  • Edited by Wilfrid E. Rumble
  • Published online:
    02 December 2009
    Print publication:
    09 March 1995
  • The Province of Jurisprudence Determined (1832) is a classic of nineteenth-century English jurisprudence, a subject on which Austin had a profound impact. His book is primarily concerned with a meticulous explanation of most of the core concepts of his legal philosophy, including his conception of law, his separation of law and morality, and his theory of sovereignty. Almost a quarter of it consists of an interpretation and defence of the principle of utility. This edition includes the complete and unabridged text of the fifth (1885) and last edition. The comprehensive introduction discusses Austin's life, the main themes of his book, leading criticisms of his ideas, and interpretations of his legal philosophy. The edition also includes a bibliography and biographical synopses of the principal figures mentioned in the text.

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