Liberty And Property: A Social History Of Western Political Thought From The Renaissance To Enlightenment
by Ellen Meiksins Wood /
2012 / English / PDF
3.4 MB Download
From Machiavelli to Rousseau, reading theorists as
responding to the conflicts of their time.
From Machiavelli to Rousseau, reading theorists as
responding to the conflicts of their time.The formation of the modern state, the rise of capitalism, the
Renaissance and Reformation, the scientific revolution and the Age
of Enlightenment have all been attributed to the “early modern”
period. Nearly everything about its history remains controversial,
but one thing is certain: it left a rich and provocative legacy of
political ideas unmatched in Western history. The concepts of
liberty, equality, property, human rights and revolution born in
those turbulent centuries continue to shape, and to limit,
political discourse today. Assessing the work and background of
figures such as Machiavelli, Luther, Calvin, Spinoza, the
Levellers, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, Ellen Wood vividly explores
the ideas of the canonical thinkers, not as philosophical
abstractions but as passionately engaged responses to the social
conflicts of their day.
The formation of the modern state, the rise of capitalism, the
Renaissance and Reformation, the scientific revolution and the Age
of Enlightenment have all been attributed to the “early modern”
period. Nearly everything about its history remains controversial,
but one thing is certain: it left a rich and provocative legacy of
political ideas unmatched in Western history. The concepts of
liberty, equality, property, human rights and revolution born in
those turbulent centuries continue to shape, and to limit,
political discourse today. Assessing the work and background of
figures such as Machiavelli, Luther, Calvin, Spinoza, the
Levellers, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, Ellen Wood vividly explores
the ideas of the canonical thinkers, not as philosophical
abstractions but as passionately engaged responses to the social
conflicts of their day.