The Foundations of Modern Political Thought

The Foundations of Modern Political Thought

First edition, volume 1
Author	Quentin Skinner
Language	English
Subject	History of political thought
Published	1978
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Publication place	United Kingdom
Awards	Wolfson Prize for History (1979)
ISBN	978-0521293372 (Vol. 1) 978-0521294355 (Vol. 2)

The Foundations of Modern Political Thought is a two-volume work of intellectual history by Quentin Skinner, published in 1978. The work traces the conceptual origins of modern politics by investigating the history of political thought in the West at the turn of the medieval and early modern periods, from the 13th to the 16th centuries. It represents the contextualist approach to the history of ideas which Skinner and his colleagues in the Cambridge School had pioneered in the 1960s.^[1]

The Times Literary Supplement named the Foundations one of the 100 most influential books since World War II.^[2] An edited collection discussing and critiquing the work, Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought, was published in 2006.^[3]

References

1. Goldie 1994, p. 177.
2. Times Literary Supplement (6 October 1995), reproduced in "The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the War". Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 49 (8): 12–18. 1996. doi:10.2307/3824697. JSTOR 3824697. p. 17.
3. Printy 2009, p. 113.

Bibliography

• Goldie, Mark (1994). "J. N. Figgis and the history of political thought in Cambridge". In Mason, Richard (ed.). Cambridge Minds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 177–92.
• Printy, Michael (2009). "Skinner and Pocock in context: Early modern political thought today". History and Theory. 48 (1): 113–21. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2303.2009.00490.x.