Liberty and Property

Book cover of Liberty and Property: Political Ideology in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Book description

First Published in 1977, Liberty and Property is a pioneering book which covers a long period, from 1688 to 1790 and beyond, and makes a major contribution to our understanding of eighteenth-century British politics. The relationship between political ideas and political reality is difficult to define. Consequently, historians seldom attempt…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Liberty and Property as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Emma Macleod

Author

Harry Dickinson supervised my Ph.D. thesis, and I am a huge fan of his writing, which is clear and accessible.

This book covers a lot of ground, explaining the different political positions people took in eighteenth-century Britain, inside and outside Parliament, but it’s so clearly set out. It’s an important book because it swam against the tide at the time it was published. The dominant opinion was that politics was an aristocratic pursuit and politicians were mainly motivated by self-interest.

This book shows that many politicians were driven by ideas, principles, and assumptions and that many more ordinary people were…

From Emma's list on British political debate in the age of revolutions.