HenryStJohn.laterViscounrBolingbroke,wasoneofthemostctrativepoliticalthinkersineighteenth-centuryBritain,andhiswritingsinfluencedBritishAmericanFoundingFathersandFrenchRevolutionaries.Inthisvolume,modemisedandfullyannotatedtextsofhismostimportantpoliticalworks,theDissertationuponParties,theletter‘OntheSpiritofPatriotism’,andTheIdeaofaPatriotKing,areboughttogetherforthefirsttime.BolingbrokewasthefirstmajorghinkertofacethelongtermeconomicandpliticalconsequencesoftheGloriousRevolution,particularlythecreationofthefirstmodemsystemofpartypolitics.In
theseworksofthe1730sheattemptedtoforgeanideologyofopositiontoattacktheWhigoligarchyofSirRobertWalpole,usingmaterialsdrawnfromclassicalrepublicanismandneo-StoicismaswellasfromcontemporaryWhigandTorythought.Hisanalysesofconstitutionalgovemmentandthepartysystemarestiollrelevanttothedilemmastothecommongoodandthenecessityofanon-partisamexecutive.Thisvolumeisintendedforundergraduatestudentsandassuchitcontainsanewintroduction,achronologyofthemaineventsinBolingbroke‘slifeandaninvaluableguidetofurtherreading.
DAVADARMTAGEisAssociateProfesorofHistoryatColunbiaUniversity.Heco-ceitedMiltonandRepublicanismwithAmandHimyandQuentinSkinner.