Explaining the English Revolution: Hobbes and His Contemporaries

by Mark Stephen Jendrysik

Overview

As we search for greater understanding of the origins of liberalism, religious toleration, and modern democratic thought, Mark Jendrysik's timely work examines the political and religious ideals that buttressed the first 'modern' revolution. Explaining the English Revolution studies the years 1649 to 1653, from regicide to the establishment of the Cromwellian Commonwealth, during which time English writers "took stock" of a disordered England stripped of the traditional ideas of political, moral, and social order and considered the possibilities for a politically and religiously reordered state. Jendrysik provides—through a rich comparative analysis of the work of Thomas Hobbes and his contemporaries Filmer, Winstanley, Cromwell, and Milton—a new understanding of the Civil War-era intelligentsia's assessment of the crisis in the body politic and their varied prescriptions and plans for a new post-revolutionary England.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739103623
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/01/2002
Edition description:	ANN
Pages:	198
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.34(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Mark Stephen Jendrysik is assistant professor of politics in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Dakota.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Disordering of Order
Chapter 2 Gerrard Winstanley: The Oppression of Covetousness
Chapter 3 John Milton: Tyranny and Revolution
Chapter 4 Oliver Cromwell: Factions, Forcers of Conscience and Civil War
Chapter 5 Robert Filmer: The Anarchy of Natural Liberty
Chapter 6 Thomas Hobbes: Divided Sovereignty and Civil War
Chapter 7 Conclusion: The Ordering of Disorder

Editorial Reviews

Explaining the English Revolution is both an accessible and engaging introduction to the political thought of the period and a lively challenge to the scholarship on Winstanley, Milton, Cromwell, Filmer, and Hobbes. Professor Jendrysik skillfully explicates the varieties of disorder perceived and propagated from 1649-1653. His careful analysis of contested concepts such as kingship, faction, freedom, and hierarchy insightfully adds to our understanding of the individual authors and to comparative studies in the field.

Amy McCready

Explaining the English Revolution is both an accessible and engaging introduction to the political thought of the period and a lively challenge to the scholarship on Winstanley, Milton, Cromwell, Filmer, and Hobbes. Professor Jendrysik skillfully explicates the varieties of disorder perceived and propagated from 1649-1653. His careful analysis of contested concepts such as kingship, faction, freedom, and hierarchy insightfully adds to our understanding of the individual authors and to comparative studies in the field.--Amy McCready, Bucknell University

From the Publisher