Political Thought
Discussion Topics and Essay Questions
- What was the most important shift in early modern political discourse between 1500 and 1650?
- Contrast and compare the ideas of two early modern political thinkers.
Documents
**NOTE: Some eresources are accessible only on-campus or via off-campus proxies or the athens service**
Texts |
[Interpret] |
Images |
[Interpret] |
|
|
||
Audio and Video Links
- BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' Programme on 'Sovereignty'
- BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' Programme on 'The Social Contract'
- BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' Programme on 'Hobbes'
- BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' Programme on 'Machiavelli and the Italian City States'
- BBC Imagine programme: 'Who's Afraid of Machiavelli?'
Secondary Literature
Selected key texts
- A. Brett & J. Tully, Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought (2006) (ebook)
-
A. Pagden, The Languages of Political Theory in early modern Europe (1987) (ebook)
-
J. G. A. Pocock, The Varieties of British Political Thought (1993) (ebook)
- J. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (2003) (ebook)
-
Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Vol. 1 The Renaissaince (1978) (ebook) (2 vols., 1978)
- ", The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Vol. 2 The Age of Reformation (1978) (ebook)
-
R. Tuck, Philosophy and Government, 1572-1651 (1993) (ebook)
-
J. G. A. Pocock, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law (1987)
Further reading
General
-
D. Armitage, Theories of Empire 1450-1800 (1998)
-
H. Braun & E. Vallance, Contexts of Conscience in early modern Europe, 1500-1700 (2004)
-
J.H. Burns & M. Goldie, The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450-1700 (1991)
-
M.P. Gilmore, Argument from Roman law in Political Thought 1200-1600 (1941)
-
A. Pagden, Lords of all the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c.1500-c.1800 (1995)
-
J. Plamenatz, Man and Society. Political and Social Theories from Machiavelli to Marx (vols.1&2, 1992 edn)
Italian Political Thought (Machiavelli)
-
H.C. Butters, ‘Power, force, diplomacy and the Roman model in the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli’, in The World of Savonarola. Italian elites and Perceptions of Crisis, eds. S. Fletcher & C. Shaw (2000), pp. 128-34
-
J.R. Hale, Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy (1961)
-
N. Rubinstein, ‘Italian Political Thought, 1450-1530’, in The Cambridge History of Political Thought, 1450-1700, ed. J. H. Burns (1991)
-
Q. Skinner, Machiavelli (1981)
English Political Thought (More, Locke, Hobbes)
- Richard Ashcraft, ‘Revolutionary Politics and Locke’s Two Treatises of Government’ in Political Theory (1980)
- Richard Ashcraft, Revolutionary politics & Locke's Two treatises of government (1986)
- B. Bradshaw, ‘More on Utopia’, Historical Journal 24 (1981)
- Justin Champion, 'Political Thinking between the Restoration and Hanoverian Succession' in B. Coward (ed.), A Companion to Stuart Britain (2003) (ebook)
- C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society (1981)
- C. Hill, The World turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution (1975)
- Peter Laslett, Locke's Two Treatises of Government (Cambridge, 1988)
- Patricia Springborg (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes's Leviathan (2007) (e-book)
- T. Sorrell (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes (1996) (ebook)
- P. Zagorin, Hobbes and the Law of Nature (2009) (ebook)
French political thought (Bodin)
- J. H. Franklin, Jean Bodin and the rise of Absolutist Theory (1973)
- J. H. M. Salmon, Society in Crisis: France in the sixteenth century (1975)
Module Forum
Module Homepage
E-Resources
Chronology
External Links
- Avalon Project: - collection of documents relating to law, history and diplomacy
- Political Treatise by Jacques-Benigne Bossuet - extracts from treatise by Jacques-Benigne Bossuet (French bishop and theologian)
- Society for Utopian Studies - international association for the study of utopianism (website includes events, publications and other resources)
- British History Online - including Commons debates and journals
- Levellers and Radicalism - discussion about the emergence of the Levellers and English Civil War Radicalism
- Milton Reading Room - complete poetry and prose by John Milton