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Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis, 1677–1683

Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis, 1677–1683

Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis, 1677–1683

Jonathan Scott, Downing College, Cambridge
October 1991
Available
Hardback
9780521352918

    This book completes the study of the life and political thought of Algernon Sidney (1623–1688), which began with Algernon Sidney and the English Republic, 1623–1677 (1988). In the process it offers a reinterpretation of the major political crisis of Charles II's reign, and of its European and seventeenth-century contexts. Like its predecessor, the book spans the disciplines of intellectual and political history. Its twin focus is the last six years of Sidney's life, which culminated in the famous public drama of his trial and execution for treason in 1683, and in his major political work, the Discourses Concerning Government, which was used as evidence against him at the trial. This intertwining of events and ideas calls for an examination of the relationship between the practical and intellectual aspects of the crisis of 1678–1683 in general.

    • Companion volume to Algernon Sidney and the English Republic (1988), completing Scott's study of this important republican
    • An important study of the 'exclusion crisis' of Charles II's reign which produced some of the most important political texts of all time

    Product details

    October 1991
    Hardback
    9780521352918
    408 pages
    237 × 158 × 28 mm
    0.724kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Preface
    • Acknowledgments
    • Part I. The Restoration Crisis:
    • 1. The shape of the future
    • 2. The shadow of the past
    • 3. The crisis of parliaments
    • 4. Retrospect
    • Part II. The Shadow Of The Past:
    • 5. Family politics 1677–83
    • 6. European politics 1678–80
    • 7. Domestic politics 1678–9
    • 8. The mutinous city 1679–81
    • 9. The Vindication of parliaments 1681–3
    • Part III. The Old Cause:
    • 10. Discourses (1) first principles
    • 11. Discourses (2) rebellion, tumult and war
    • 12. The self-defence of protestants
    • 13. The tower
    • 14. The reckoning
    • Conclusion
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
      Author
    • Jonathan Scott , Downing College, Cambridge