Gregory Claeys explores the reception of the French Revolution in Britain through the medium of its leading interpreters. Claeys argues that the major figures - Thomas Paine, Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin and John Thelwall - collectively laid the foundations for political debate for the following century, and longer.
GREGORY CLAEYS is Professor of the History of Political Thought at Royal Holloway University of London, UK.
GREGORY CLAEYS is Professor of the History of Political Thought at Royal Holloway University of London, UK.
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Introduction: The Origins of Modern Political Discourse
Edmund Burke: Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and the Origins of Conservatism
Thomas Paine: Rights of Man (1791-2) and the Origins of Radicalism
Mary Wollstonecraft: Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and the Origins of Feminism
The Spectre of 'Levelling': Loyalists and Paineites, c.1791-5
Varieties of Whiggism: Fox, Sheridan and the Whig Party, 1791-3
William Godwin: Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) and the Origins of Philisophical Anarchism
John Thelwall and the Rights of Labour
Conclusion
Notes
Reading List: Major Figures
Index.