Catharine Macaulay: Political Writings

The first modern scholarly edition of the published writings of 18th-century historian and political pamphleteer Catharine Macaulay.

Catharine Macaulay (Author), Max Skjönsberg (Edited by)

9781009307444, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 March 2023

360 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.45 kg

'Max Skjönsberg has situated the work of Catharine Macaulay within a significantly remapped domain of political thought, broadened not only to rectify the exclusion of women, but also … to include a critic of 'revolution principles' whose métier was primarily historical not philosophical.' London Review of Books

The writings of republican historian and political pamphleteer Catharine Macaulay (1731–91) played a central role in debates about political reform in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution. A critical reader of Hume's bestselling History of England, she broke new ground in historiography by defending the regicide of Charles I and became an inspiration for many luminaries of the American and French revolutions. While her historical and political works engaged with thinkers from Hobbes and Locke to Bolingbroke and Burke, she also wrote about religion, philosophy, education and animal rights. Influencing Wollstonecraft and proto-feminism, she argued that there were no moral differences between men and women and that boys and girls should receive the same education. This book is the first scholarly edition of Catharine Macaulay's published writings and includes all her known pamphlets along with extensive selections from her longer historical and political works.

Selections from The History of England (1763–83)
Loose Remarks on Certain Positions to be Found in Mr. Hobbes's 'Philosophical Rudiments of Government and Society', with a Short Sketch of a Democratical Form of Government, in a Letter to Signor Paoli (1767)
Observations on a Pamphlet entitled 'Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents' (1770)
A Modest Plea for the Property of Copy Right (1774)
An Address to the People of England, Scotland and Ireland on the Present Important Crisis of Affairs (1775)
Selections from The History of England from the Revolution to the Present Time in a Series of Letters to a Friend (1778)
Selections from Letters on Education, with Observations on Religious and Metaphysical Subjects (1790)
Observations on the Reflections of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke on the Revolution in France (1790).

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Feminism & feminist theory [JFFK], History of ideas [JFCX], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL]