Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political Thought and History, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century

Superior; 4.5 Stars

This is a very interesting collection of essays on 18th century Britain by the outstanding intellectual historian JGA Pocock. Pocock discusses a variety of interesting figures, some very well known like Hume and Burke, as well as more obscure figures. As is characteristic of all Pocock's work, these essays embody a systematic effort to understand these thinkers in a non-anachronistic and contextually grounded manner. Pocock's knowledge of the texts is remarkable and his broad knowledge of many thinkers leads to impressive analyses of 18th century thought. Continuing one of the major themes of his great The Machiavellian Moment, a number of these essays deal with political thought reacting to the emerging commercial and imperial society of 18th century Britain. Some of the best essays deal with the broad and interesting Whig tradition that emerges from the interaction of 17th republican theory and the changes in British society. His analyses of several thinkers, such as his... read more