The Levellers

The Levellers PDF Author: Rachel Foxley
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526112086
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
The Leveller movement of the 1640s campaigned for religious toleration and a radical remaking of politics in post-civil war England. This book, the first full-length study of the Levellers for fifty years, offers a fresh analysis of the originality and character of Leveller thought. Challenging received ideas about the Levellers as social contract theorists and Leveller thought as a mere radicalisation of parliamentarian thought, Foxley shows that the Levellers’ originality lay in their subtle and unexpected combination of different strands within parliamentarianism. The book takes full account of recent scholarship, and contributes to historical debates on the development of radical and republican politics in the civil war period, the nature of tolerationist thought, the significance of the Leveller movement and the extent of the Levellers’ influence in the ranks of the New Model Army.

The Levellers

The Levellers PDF Author: Rachel Foxley
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526112086
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Get Book

Book Description
The Leveller movement of the 1640s campaigned for religious toleration and a radical remaking of politics in post-civil war England. This book, the first full-length study of the Levellers for fifty years, offers a fresh analysis of the originality and character of Leveller thought. Challenging received ideas about the Levellers as social contract theorists and Leveller thought as a mere radicalisation of parliamentarian thought, Foxley shows that the Levellers’ originality lay in their subtle and unexpected combination of different strands within parliamentarianism. The book takes full account of recent scholarship, and contributes to historical debates on the development of radical and republican politics in the civil war period, the nature of tolerationist thought, the significance of the Leveller movement and the extent of the Levellers’ influence in the ranks of the New Model Army.

The Leveller Revolution

The Leveller Revolution PDF Author: John Rees
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1784783897
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
The gripping story of the Levellers, the radical movement at the heart of the English Revolution The Levellers, formed out of the explosive tumult of the 1640s and the battlefields of the Civil War, are central figures in the history of democracy. In this thrilling narrative, John Rees brings to life the men—including John Lilburne, Richard Overton and Thomas Rainsborough—and women who ensured victory and became an inspiration to republicans of many nations. From the raucous streets of London and the clattering printers’ workshops that stoked the uprising, to the rank and file of the New Model Army and the furious Putney debates where the Levellers argued with Oliver Cromwell for the future of English democracy, this story reasserts the revolutionary nature of the 1642–51 wars and the role of ordinary people in this pivotal moment in history. In particular Rees places the Levellers at the centre of the debates of 1647 when the nation was gripped by the question of what to do with the defeated Charles I. Without the Levellers and Agitators’ fortitude and well-organised opposition history may have avoided the regicide and missed its revolutionary moment. The legacy of the Levellers can be seen in the modern struggles for freedom and democracy across the world.

The English Levellers

The English Levellers PDF Author: Andrew Sharp
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521625111
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
The Levellers were a crucial component of a radically democratic movement during the civil wars in seventeenth-century England. This was to be democratic at a time when the very idea of democracy conjured up nothing good; with its suggestion of anarchy and the 'levelling' of distinctions in rank and of property, even the holding of women in common. This collection of thirteen fully annotated Leveller writings, including their famous Agreements of the People, is important as a contribution not only to the understanding of the English civil wars, but also of democratic theory. The editor's introduction sets the Leveller ideas in their context and, together with a chronology, short biographies of the leading figures and a guide to further reading, will be of interest to students of the English civil wars, the history of political thought and the history of democratic ideas.

The Levellers and the English Revolution

The Levellers and the English Revolution PDF Author: Henry Noel Brailsford
Publisher: Spokesman Books
ISBN: 9780851241548
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 715

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Book Description


Diggers, Levellers, and Agrarian Capitalism

Diggers, Levellers, and Agrarian Capitalism PDF Author: Geoff Kennedy
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739123744
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
"This book situates the development of radical English political thought within the context of the specific nature of agrarian capitalism and the struggles that ensued around the nature of the state during the revolutionary decade of the 1640s. In the context of the emerging conceptions of the state and property - with attendant notions of accumulation, labor, and the common good - groups such as Levellers and Diggers developed distinctive forms of radical political thought not because they were progressive, forward thinkers, but because they were the most significant challengers of the newly constituted forms of political and economic power." "Drawing on recent reexaminations of the nature of agrarian capitalism and modernity in the early modern period, Geoff Kennedy argues that any interpretation of the political theory of this period must relate to the changing nature of social property relations and state power. The radical nature of early modern English political thought is therefore cast-in terms of its oppositional relationship to these novel forms of property and state power, rather than being conceived of as a formal break from discursive conventions."--BOOK JACKET.

'the True Levellers' Standard Advanced', 'the Law of Freedom' and Other Writings

'the True Levellers' Standard Advanced', 'the Law of Freedom' and Other Writings PDF Author: Gerrard Winstanley
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781492754879
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
In the heady and exciting days of the English Revolution, the Diggers stand out for their radicalism, and their proposals to abolish money and private property, and to collectivize the land. Winstanley was an impassioned voice, arguing passionately against injustice and poverty with beguiling logic and a burning sense that society should be more egalitarian. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of political thought and theory. Winstanley stands in a long line of radical English thought which reaches back to Wat Tyler and the Peasants' Revolt and is seen today in the Occupy movement.

Dance Before the Storm

Dance Before the Storm PDF Author: George Berger
Publisher: Virgin Books Limited
ISBN: 9780753503355
Category : Alternative rock musicians
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Charting the rise of The Levellers, from their inception in 1989, through to their emergence as forerunners of the New Age Traveller movement of the early 90s, the author tells the story of the band's quasi-hippy ideals, contrary folk music and belief in the power of rock 'n' roll.

The Great Leveler

The Great Leveler PDF Author: Walter Scheidel
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691184313
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Book Description
How only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout world history Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world. Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The "Four Horsemen" of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future. An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent—and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.

Following the Levellers, Volume One

Following the Levellers, Volume One PDF Author: Gary S. De Krey
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137268433
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
This book reinterprets the Leveller authorships of John Lilburne, Richard Overton and William Walwyn, and foregrounds the role of ordinary people in petitioning and protest during an era of civil war and revolution. The Levellers sought to restructure the state in 1647-49 around popular consent and liberty for conscience, especially in their Agreement of the People. Their following was not a ‘movement’ but largely a political response of the sects that had emerged in London’s rapidly growing peripheral neighbourhoods and in other localities in the 1640s. This study argues that the Levellers did not emerge as a separate political faction before October 1647, that they did not succeed in establishing extensive political organisation, and that the troop revolt of spring 1649 was not really a Leveller phenomenon. Addressing the contested interpretations of the Levellers throughout, this book also introduces Leveller history to non-specialist readers.

An Arrow Against All Tyrants

An Arrow Against All Tyrants PDF Author: RICHARD. OVERTON
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781912454570
Category : Civil rights
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In 1646, Richard Overton, a Leveller, penned a political pamphlet which asserted the inalienable rights of the individual, from his cell in Newgate Gaol. Reprinted here is Overton's bold, declamatory pamphlet, with an introduction by Ian Gadd, Professor of English Literature at Bath Spa University.