Rethinking Liberty before Liberalism
Rethinking Liberty before Liberalism
$30.99
USDOpens up new histories of freedom and republicanism by building on Quentin Skinner's ground-breaking Liberty before Liberalism nearly twenty five years after its initial publication. Leading historians and philosophers reveal the neo-Roman conception of liberty that Skinner unearthed as a normative and historical hermeneutic tool of enormous, ongoing power. The volume thinks with neo-Romanism to offer reinterpretations of individual thinkers, such as Montaigne, Grotius and Locke. It probes the role of neo-Roman liberty within hierarchies and structures beyond that of citizen and state – namely, gender, slavery, and democracy. Finally, it reassesses the relationships between neo-Romanism and other languages in the history of political thought: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and the human rights tradition. The volume concludes with a major reappraisal by Skinner himself.
- Presents a probing commentary on Quentin Skinner's ground-breaking articulation of neo-Roman liberty, including a major new reappraisal by Skinner himself
- Offers a compendium of original philosophical and historical interpretations of freedom, as well as an overview of the vast debates on the topic
- Reveals neo-Roman liberty as a powerful tool to interpret individual authors, hierarchies and structures beyond that of citizen and state, and other languages of freedom, such as liberalism and human rights
Reviews & endorsements
'Rethinking Liberty Before Liberalism succeeds magnificently as a tribute to the achievement of Liberty Before Liberalism, as a substantive contribution to the history of political thought, and as an addition to the corpus of political philosophy itself.' David Armitage, University of Harvard
'The internationally reputed scholars brought together in this volume both appraise and contribute to the extraordinarily fertile discussions that followed the publication of Quentin Skinner's text twenty years ago. An outstanding volume, beautifully curated and introduced by its editors, and likely to become a point of reference in the field.' Cécile Laborde, University of Oxford
'Each chapter of the volume offers a distinctive perspective on neo-Roman liberty, exploring it in familiar and less familiar historical contexts. Together, they demonstrate its centrality in the history of political thought and pay fine tribute to Quentin Skinner's retrieval of this pivotal aspect of our intellectual heritage.' Markku Peltonen, Society
'As someone who has had Liberty before Liberalism on my syllabus for a few years now, I cannot but welcome a new publication aimed at rethinking Skinner's book … The new volume has a lot to offer to those who developed a thirst for an intellectual sequel after reading the original work.' Evgeny Roshchin, Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory
Product details
February 2022Hardback
9781108844567
330 pages
235 × 157 × 20 mm
0.6kg
Not yet published - available from February 2025
Table of Contents
- Introduction Hannah Dawson and Annelien de Dijn
- Part I. Authors:
- 1. Freedom without republicanism: the case of Montaigne Felicity Green
- 2. Hugo Grotius on freedom of will and self-government: Greek, patristic and roman legacies Martin van Gelderen
- 3. Liberty before licence in Locke Hannah Dawson
- Part II. Hierarchies:
- 4. Liberty and hierarchy in Milton's revolutionary prose Rachel Foxley
- 5. Democratic republicanism in the early modern period Annelien de Dijn
- 6. Gender, liberty, participation and virtue: what the eighteenth century can teach us about republicanism Sandrine Bergès
- 7. Liberty, death, and slavery in the age of atlantic revolutions, 1770s-1790s René Koekkoek
- Part III. Traditions:
- 8. Beyond the 'wretched subterfuge': liberalism, freedom, and responsibility Eric Nelson
- 9. 'A just and true liberty': the idea of (neo-roman) freedom in francophone counter-revolutionary thought c. 1780-1800 Matthijs Lok
- 10. Chains and invisible threads: liberty and domination in Marx's account of wage-slavery Bruno Leipold
- 11. Republican liberty in the philosophy of human rights Lena Halldenius
- Conclusion: on neo-roman liberty: a response and reassessment Quentin Skinner.
