Review by Choice Review
It is difficult to say whether this is a book about democratic theory, or about the social and political history of Tudor and Stuart England, or about the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. All three subjects are evenly dealt with and deliberately interwoven by Herzog, who contends that their separation into academic disciplines and subdisciplines has needlessly cramped their development. The book therefore makes a claim for methodolgical uniqueness and so belies easy comparisons. The author's central argument is that the 16th and 17th centuries witnessed the collapse in England of medieval, organic society and that the rise of "masterless men" made government by consent the most attractive foundation on which to rebuild the body politic. The social context out of which liberalism emerged, he continues, is a necessary guide for understanding the thought of Hobbes and Locke, and both this context and this thought indicate that consent is not an event (e.g., the social contract, voting, residency) but is a relationship in which the government shows itself responsive to the wishes of the governed. The book is engagingly written and is particularly thoughtful when treating contemporary issues. The social history suffers somewhat from being a collection of discrete snapshots. The textual exegesis, while providing an interesting gloss, is basically historicist in method. Still, this is a well-crafted book and a useful approach to the study of liberalism. Upper-division undergraduates and above. P. Coby Smith College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
