J. H. Burns (1) (1921–)

Most of the writings in this overview of European political thought focus a bit too much on textual details. The background context of various strands in political thought is rarely portrayed to a helpful extent. The reader has to possess a solid grounding especially in Reformation / Counter-reformation religious politics across Europe to really feel at home in these discussions.

Some contributions are more interesting. I liked the broad view of constitutionalism offered in chapter 9 and the analyses of English republicanism in chapters 14 and 15. In fact the emphasis of the second half of the book rests quite heavily on England. This is justified in chapter 15, where the author writes that "It was in England that the classical vision of Italian Renaissance humanists was preserved in the seventeenth century, and it was from there that it subsequently reentered political thought elsewhere" (p.444).

The final chapter on John Locke, written by James Tully, differs from many of the preceding ones in that the author clearly lists which problems Locke addressed and presents their historical context. His discussion of Locke's fivefold solution to these problems inspired me to reread Two Treatises of Government. I only wish the other contributors to this volume would have discussed their subjects with equal breadth and clarity.… (plus d'informations)

This is a surprisingly homogenous collection of writings on medieval political thought. I did not even notice when the author changed from one chapter to the next. In the concluding chapter the editor mentions that this book differs from others in its broad conception of political thought, in particular its emphasis of "ecclesiological" concepts as political ones and canon law as rudimentary political theory. This seems like an accurate characterization, and it's one of the reasons why I didn't read this book from start to finish. Church history and biblical interpretation just aren't that interesting. But on the whole I appreciated the broad scope of this book and I learned a lot from the parts I did read. It's definitely an indispensable introduction to European political thought in this period.… (plus d'informations)