Description
Book SynopsisThe Agreements of the People were a series of written constitutions proposed variously by Levellers, soldiers and citizens for the settlement of the nation at the height of the English Revolution. The essays in this book explore the various Agreements in the context of the constitutional crisis that engulfed England in the late 1640s and 1650s.
Trade ReviewWon Book of the Week at the University of Buckingham (7th August 2013)
"The [historiographical] landscape is altered in sometimes startling, but always refreshing, ways and, for those interested in the English revolution, the development of constitutional thought and the sources and character of early modern radicalism, this is an indispensable text." - J.C. Davis, Parliamentary History
Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsNotes on Contributors Abbreviations Introduction: The History and Historiography of The Agreements of the People; E.Vernon & P.Baker Oaths, Covenants, Associations and the Origins of the Agreements of the People: The Road To and From Putney; E.Vallance The People of the Agreements: The Levellers, Civil War Radicalism and Political Participation; J.Peacey Constitutionalism: Ancient, Modern and Early Modern in the Agreements of the People; D.A.Orr The Levellers, Decentralisation and the Agreements of the People; P.Baker Freedom of Conscience and the Agreements of the People; R.Foxley The New Model Army and the Constitutional Crisis of the Later 1640s; I.Gentles Drafting the Officers' Agreement of the People: A Reappraisal; F.Henderson 'A Firme and Present Peace; Upon Grounds of Common Right and Freedome': The Debate on the Agreements of the People and the Crisis of the Constitution, 1647-59; E.Vernon Diggers, True Levellers and the Crisis of the English Revolution; A.Hughes The Agreements of the People and the Constitutions of the Interregnum Governments; D.L.Smith Appendix I
