Algernon Sidney and the English Republic 1623–1677

The first full-scale study of this influential political writer for over a century.

Jonathan Scott (Author)

9780521611954, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 January 2005

272 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.422 kg

In the century following his execution for treason in 1683, Algernon Sidney became one of the most widely influential political writers - in both Europe and America - that England had ever produced. This is the first full-scale study of Sidney for more than a century, and the first ever study of his political thought. The book describes Sidney's republican political ideas and their later impact. It sets them in their ideological context, in relation both to their sources and to the ideas of contemporaries, including Milton, Harrington, Vane, and Locke. It then asks: how did this ideology develop, and why? The answer involves a series of investigations: of Sidney's family background; of the nature of his personal life and family relationships; and of his public political career. On this latter score we follow Sidney's progress from parliamentarian soldier in the English Civil War, to senior member and ambassador of the English Republic, to embittered exile after the Restoration in 1660.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: the man and the myth
Part I. Family and Ideas: 2. Political and religious thought
3. Family background
4. Family politics
Part II. War and Politics: 5. Diplomacy and war 1635–48
6. Republic 1649–53
7. Tyranny 1653–59
8. War and diplomacy 1659–60
Part III. Restoration and Exile: 9. The Restoration
10. Rome 1660–63
11. The exiles 1663–66
12. The Court Maxims
13. The Dutch connection
14. Le Comte de Sidney 1666–77
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]