Left-Wing Democracy In The English Civil War: A Study Of The Social Philosophy Of Gerrard Winstanley
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A rigorous work of political and intellectual history, this study presents a penetrating analysis of the radical democratic thought that emerged from the turbulent upheaval of the seventeenth-century English Civil War, with particular focus on the visionary agrarian communist Gerrard Winstanley and his Digger movement. Petegorsky argues that Winstanley's social philosophy represented one of the most coherent and revolutionary challenges to property and power in early modern England, situating it firmly within the broader currents of left-wing dissent that the war unleashed. The work meticulously details the social and economic conditions that gave rise to Winstanley's thought, illustrating how poverty, dispossession, and religious ferment combined to produce a genuinely egalitarian vision of a commonwealth built on common ownership of the land. Written with scholarly precision yet animated by a clear sense of historical urgency, the analysis uncovers the surprising modernity of Winstanley's ideas, tracing their connections to later traditions of socialism and democratic theory. This remains an essential text for anyone seeking to understand the radical fringes of the Puritan Revolution and the enduring legacy of England's most forgotten revolutionary thinkers.
Author: David W. Petegorsky
Format: Hardback
Published: 1940, Victor Gollancz Ltd
Genre: British & Irish history
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: N/A
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A rigorous work of political and intellectual history, this study presents a penetrating analysis of the radical democratic thought that emerged from the turbulent upheaval of the seventeenth-century English Civil War, with particular focus on the visionary agrarian communist Gerrard Winstanley and his Digger movement. Petegorsky argues that Winstanley's social philosophy represented one of the most coherent and revolutionary challenges to property and power in early modern England, situating it firmly within the broader currents of left-wing dissent that the war unleashed. The work meticulously details the social and economic conditions that gave rise to Winstanley's thought, illustrating how poverty, dispossession, and religious ferment combined to produce a genuinely egalitarian vision of a commonwealth built on common ownership of the land. Written with scholarly precision yet animated by a clear sense of historical urgency, the analysis uncovers the surprising modernity of Winstanley's ideas, tracing their connections to later traditions of socialism and democratic theory. This remains an essential text for anyone seeking to understand the radical fringes of the Puritan Revolution and the enduring legacy of England's most forgotten revolutionary thinkers.