Utopias of the British Enlightenment by Gregory Claeys

Utopias of the British Enlightenment by Gregory Claeys

This is a major collection of eighteenth-century British utopias. Seven tracts, spanning the century, show how the image of the ideal society was used as a form of social criticism, and particularly as a means of focussing on ideas of progress and commercial development. Radical and republican thinking about property ownership, social equality, and commerce and luxury - of particular relevance to the critique of 'corruption' in this period - coexists with nostalgic and conservative notions of the ideal hierarchical community. The introduction, which examines the relationship of these tracts to the political thought of the period, shows how issues and developments of key importance, from the debate surrounding the French Revolution to the origins of Romanticism and early socialism, are illuminated by an understanding of the utopian tradition.

Gregory Claeys is a University of London Professor of Political Thought History. He is the editor of The Works of Robert Owen (1993), and his writings include Thomas Paine: Social and Political Philosophy (1989) and Citizens and Saints: Politics and Anti-Politics in Early British Socialism (1989).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521455909
ISBN 10	0521455901
Title	Utopias of the British Enlightenment
Author	Gregory Claeys
Series	Cambridge Texts In The History Of Political Thought
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	1994-07-07
Number of pages	350
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.