The author’s aim throughout is to incorporate the benefits of modern scholarship of the historical school, with its emphasis on historical and political circumstances as a key to meaning. Recognizing that for most students time will not allow detailed study of the historical and political contexts of particular works, Hampsher-Monk provides here the background necessary for the reader to situate the writings of key thinkers in relation to wider currents in intellectual and political history. will meet the needs of both general readers and students of political theory and philosophy. It is an indispensable secondary source which aims to situate, explain, and provoke thought about the major works of political theory likely to be encountered by students of modern political thought.