Explaining the English Revolution: Hobbes and His Contemporaries

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Lexington Books, 2007 - History - 198 pages
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.

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Contents

Introduction The Disordering of Order
1
Gerrard Winstanley The Oppressions of Covetousness
25
John Milton Tyranny and Revolution
49
Oliver Cromwell Factions Forcers of Conscience and Civil War
73
Sir Robert Filmer The Anarchy of Natural Liberty
95
Thomas Hobbes Divided Sovereignty and Civil War
119
Conclusion The Ordering of Disorder
149
Bibliography
165
Index
177
About the Author
181
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About the author (2007)

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