num_pages: 276
description: This volume is concerned with radical prose from the period 1642-1660 and comprises political pamphlets covering the years of the Civil War and the Commonwealth. All the pamphlets are revolutionary in varying degrees: two by Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates and The Readie and the Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth; one each by the three Leveller leaders, John Lilburne, William Walwyn and Richard Overton; one by the Digger, Gerrard Winstanley, and one by the Republican, James Harrington. The volume opens with what has been called perhaps the most important political tract of the period, Henry Parker's Observations, which has never before appeared in a modern edition. There are also extracts from the famous Army Debates at Putney in 1647.There is a substantial introduction to the whole volume in which the editors offer a historical survey of the period, consider the intellectual and political context of the pamphlets, sketch in significant biographical details and examine the various styles which the writers employ. The editors gloss obscurities of argument and allusions in footnotes and endnotes, and preface each selection with a headnote which comments upon the circumstances surrounding its composition.This book will prove to be an indispensable tool for all serious students of 17th-century literature, history, and political theory.
language: English
title: Revolutionary Prose of the English Civil War
titlecomplete: Revolutionary Prose of the English Civil War (Cambridge English Prose Texts)
ratings_count: 2
publisher: Cambridge University Press