Sovereignty: Seventeenth-Century England and the Making of the Modern Political Imaginary

Download or read book Sovereignty: Seventeenth-Century England and the Making of the Modern Political Imaginary written by Feisal G. Mohamed and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-06 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that sovereignty is the first-order question of political order, and that seventeenth-century England provides an important case study in the roots of its modern iterations. It offers fresh readings of Thomas Hobbes, John Milton, and Andrew Marvell, as well as lesser-known figures and literary texts. In addition to political philosophy and literary studies, it also takes account of the period's legal history, exploring the exercise of the crown's feudal rights in the Court of Wards and Liveries, debates over habeas rights, and contests of various courts over jurisdiction. Theorizing sovereignty in a way that points forward to later modernity, the book also offers a sustained critique of the writings of Carl Schmitt, the twentieth century's most influential, if also most controversial, thinker on this topic.