Liberty in Hume’s History of EnglandN. Capaldi, D. Livingston LIBERTY IN HUME'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND In his own lifetime, Hume was feted by his admirers as a great historian, and even his enemies conceded that he was a controversial historian with whom one had to reckon. On the other hand, Hume failed to achieve positive recognition for his philosophical views. It was Hume's History of England that played an influential role in public policy debate during the eighteenth century in both Great Britain and in the United States. Hume's Hist01Y of England passed through seven editions and was beginning to be perceived as a classic before Hume's death. Voltaire, as an historian, considered it "perhaps the best ever written in any lan guage. " Gibbon greatly admired Hume's work and said, of a letter written by Hume in 1776 praising the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, that a compliment from Hume "overpaid the labor of ten years. " After Hume's death on August 20, 1776, the History became a factor in the revolutionary events that began to unfold. Louis XVI was a close student of Hume's History, and his valet records that, upon having learned that the Convention had voted the death penalty, the King asked for the volume in Hume's History covering the trial and execution of Charles I to read in the days that remained. But if Louis XVI found the consolations of philosophical history in the Stuart volumes, Thomas Jefferson saw in them a cause for alarm. |
Contents
Humes England as a Natural History of Morals | 25 |
Hume on Liberty in the Successive English Constitutions | 53 |
Humes Historical Conception of Liberty | 105 |
Humes History and the Parameters of Economic Development | 155 |
The Preservation of Liberty | 195 |
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Common terms and phrases
absolute monarchy actions ancient constitution Anglo-Saxon arbitrary arts and sciences authority Bacon barbarous barons Capaldi causes century civil commerce commercial society concept of liberty Conquest contract theory Craig Walton critical custom dangerous David Hume discussion economic English history Essays established experience false philosophy Henry VII historian History of England human nature Hume's account Hume's conception Hume's History Hume's philosophy Hume's view Humean Ibid ideas important institutions J. G. A. Pocock justice king liberal Liberty Classics Liberty in Hume's Livingston luxury magistrate Magna Carta Marxism ment military modern monarchy moral nation natural history Norman norms observes op.cit parliament parties passions perfection plan of liberty political practice prerogative principles progress reason refinement reflection reign religion religious republic republican revolution rule of law Saxon Scottish Enlightenment sense social Star Chamber Stuarts thinking thought tion tradition true Tudor understanding University virtue Whig Wilkes