An Historical View of the English Government (Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics) - Softcover

Millar, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865974454 ISBN 13: 9780865974456

Publisher: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2006

Synopsis

An Historical View of the English Government consists of three parts, concerned with the most substantive revolutions in English government and manners: from the Saxon settlement to the Norman Conquest, from the Norman Conquest to the accession of James I, and from James I to the Glorious Revolution. Through these three phases Millar traces the development of the great outlines of the English constitution” the history of institutions of English liberty from Saxon antiquity to the revolution settlement of 1689. Millar demonstrates serious concern for the maintenance of liberties achieved through revolution and maintains that the manners of a commercial nation, while particularly suited to personal and political liberty, are not such as to secure liberty forever.

The historical context that An Historical View provides makes it an excellent complement to Liberty Fund’s The Glasgow Edition of the Works of Adam Smith and The History of England by David Hume.

John Millar (1735 1801) explored, through his works, the nature of English governance through a prism of the natural law tradition and Scottish philosophical history. Millar was a student of Adam Smith’s at Glasgow University and his most important immediate intellectual heir. His works provide an essential linkage to Smith.

Mark Salber Phillips is Professor of History at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Dale R. Smith completed his doctorate in history at the University of British Columbia.

Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History and Director of the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England.

About this title

About the Author:

Gordon Schochet is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Rutgers University. Mark Salber Phillips is a professor in the Department of History at Carleton University.

Review:

This oldie reaches back to 1787. Millar was a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and a noted social analyst. He divides his history into three sections: the Saxons through the Normans, the Normans to James I, and James I to the Glorious Revolution.

Library Journal
January 2007

Much evidence stacked up on my bookshelves suggests--pace Hawes--a determination to scrutinize and respect claims for the Enlightenment: Liberty Press's ongoing series Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics (which saw new editions this year of John Millar's An Historical View of the English Government: From the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Revolution in 1688 and The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks, Francis Hutcheson's Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind, and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui's The Principles of Natural and Politic Law); the several books that revalue Enlightenment aspirations as they make philosophy the master key for unlocking cultural preoccupations.

Studies in English Literature
Summer 2007

About this edition

• Publisher: Liberty Fund, Inc.
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0865974454
• ISBN 13: 9780865974456
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 917
• Editor: Phillips Mark Salber