Commonwealth Principles: Republican Writing of the English Revolution

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.

• The subject is the most important intellectual and literary product of the English Revolution, and of enduring fascination to scholars in a number of different fields • Jonathan Scott is established as one of the most important historians of the seventeenth-century writing today • A single-volume survey of this major theme

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, 1603–1649; 12. The English republic, 1649–1653; 13. Healing and settling, 1653–1658; 14. The good old cause, 1658–1660; 15. Anatomies of tyranny, 1660–1683; 16. Republicans and Whigs, 1680–1725; Appendix: \'a pretty story of horses\' (May 1654); Bibliography; Index.

England’s Troubles (Scott’s previous book) was described by the TLS as ‘brimming with originality and stuffed with insights that make it the most stimulating book on seventeenth-century history to have appeared in years, if not in decades’.

\'Commonwealth Principles demonstrates the range, vigour and intrigue of intellectual English Republicanism.\' Times Literary Supplement

\'Commonwealth Principles presents a coherent and confident overview.\' Times Literary Supplement

\'… deserves to command the attention of a wide readership of early modern historians, and will asuredly stimulate further research into the ideological composition of seventeenth-century republicanism.\' Journal of Ecclesiastical History