Explaining the English Revolution: Hobbes and His Contemporaries

(Paperback)

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As we search for greater understanding of the origins of liberalism, religious toleration, and modern democratic thought, Mark Jendrysik's timely work examines the political and religious ideals that buttressed the first 'modern' revolution. Explaining the English Revolution studies the years 1649 to 1653, from regicide to the establishment of the Cromwellian Commonwealth, during which time English writers "took stock" of a disordered England stripped of the traditional ideas of political, moral, and social order and considered the possibilities for a politically and religiously reordered state. Jendrysik providesthrough a rich comparative analysis of the work of Thomas Hobbes and his contemporaries Filmer, Winstanley, Cromwell, and Miltona new understanding of the Civil War-era intelligentsia's assessment of the crisis in the body politic and their varied prescriptions and plans for a new post-revolutionary England.

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Explaining the English Revolution is both an accessible and engaging introduction to the political thought of the period and a lively challenge to the scholarship on Winstanley, Milton, Cromwell, Filmer, and Hobbes. Professor Jendrysik skillfully explicates the varieties of disorder perceived and propagated from 1649-1653. His careful analysis of contested concepts such as kingship, faction, freedom, and hierarchy insightfully adds to our understanding of the individual authors and to comparative studies in the field. -- Amy McCready, Bucknell University

Author Bio

Mark Stephen Jendrysik is assistant professor of politics in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Dakota.