Arendt’s Break with the Liberal Imaginary of Society

The first part of the article analyses the imaginary of the characteristics and form of (civil) society as developed in early modern liberal political philosophy, especially by John Locke and Thomas Paine. It uses different contemporary receptions of the key authors of this tradition, namely the liberal reception of John Keane, which emphasizes the theoretical distinction between civil society and the state, the materialist reception of Ellen Meiksins Wood, which contextualizes political ideas in the political struggles and class interests of the time, and the reception of Foucault, which focuses on the development of biopolitical governmentality. The article finds that the liberal tradition imagined (civil) society as a given and self-regulating sphere that does not require interference from the state. A socio-historical presupposition of this imaginary was the economic sovereignty of individuals, and it overlooked the relations of domination and exploitation. In its second part, the article presents Hannah Arendt’s critical concept of society. She did not conceptualize society as a given totality and in a spatial way, but used it as a qualifier of a specific, impoverished mode of being, in particular to analyse the situation and perspective of minorities.

Printing the Levellers: Clandestine Print, Radical Propaganda, and the New Model Army

this article uses techniques of typographical analysis to identify the print houses that secretly produced the most important writings associated with the incipient ‘Leveller’ grouping as it took shape in 1646–47. It examines the key printers, Jane Coe and Thomas Paine, while illuminating the dynamics of the clandestine book trade of the 1640s. It then shows that these same printers acted as stationers of choice for the emergent New Model Army agitators, producing works such as the The Case of the Army Truly Stated and An Agreement of the People, among other titles. The resulting account sheds light on the origins and nature of the Leveller movement, and allows for discussion of the connections between the Levellers and the New Model Army. More broadly, this article highlights the centrality of printers as political protagonists and suggests that new modes of bibliographical analysis can address major problems in early-modern history.

Reenacting the Pamphlet War in an Age of Turmoil

Published in 1790, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France triggered a pamphlet war whose major players included Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Paine, and the artist James Gillray. The debate that ensued about the French Revolution, which Percy Shelley called “the master theme of the epoch in which we live,” was fundamentally a debate between past and present, between tradition and the needs of a living culture, and between the status quo and innovation. This essay describes an attempt by the author to reenact the Pamphlet War at the US Air Force Academy to help cadets negotiate these tensions at their institution and, in doing so, participate in the work of Romanticism. The essay also suggests ways Romanticists could harness the Pamphlet War to engage political and cultural debates in our own age of upheaval and turmoil. Finally, it offers the Pamphlet War as a vehicle for debating the state of the field and the work of the Romantic classroom itself.

“As Different . . . as Light Is from Darkness”

This chapter argues that the clergy’s overall perspective on political resistance remained consistent, even as political loyalties shifted with the Declaration of Independence in 1776. John Witherspoon, the leading clergyman to publicly support independence, remained consistent in his rejection of political absolutism and his belief in the doctrine of resistance. He did not agree with the perspective of Thomas Paine and other political radicals but argued for resistance along the lines of his own theological tradition. Support for political independence, it is argued, should not be viewed as signaling a broader shift in Witherspoon’s ethical and philosophical views. He did not embrace a secular understanding of moral virtue held by philosophers like Francis Hutcheson. His moral philosophy and approach to moral questions remained consistent with his own theological tradition, and no major shift needs to be asserted in this regard.

Thomas Paine e a Revolução Francesa: entre o Liberalismo e a Democracia (1794-1795)

O propósito deste artigo é explorar a especificidade de um panfleto de Thomas Paine pouquíssimo estudado pelos historiadores, Dissertation on First Principles of Government (1795), no cenário das relações entre liberalismo e democracia na passagem do século XVIII ao século XIX. Trata-se de discutir a maneira como o revolucionário inglês – que foi ator, testemunho e intérprete da Era das Revoluções – elaborou uma formulação teórica que o afastou tanto do pensamento e das práticas jacobinas quanto das legislações e discursos dos deputados termidorianos durante o período da República Termidoriana (1794-1795) da Revolução Francesa. Para tanto, iremos recorrer também a outros textos e cartas do autor e discutir suas mudanças em relação aos panfletos anteriores, como Common Sense e Rights of Man. Com isso, pretende-se abrir novas perspectivas a respeito da obra de Paine e de seu lugar na história do pensamento político.