Whigs and Liberals: Continuity and Change in English Political Thought

by J.W. Burrow

This is an analysis of English political thought in the 18th and 19th centuries, organized around the concept of a Whig tradition. Arguing that the study of 19th-century liberal thought has taken too little account of its 18th-century antecedents, Burrow considers the central ideas of Liberalism and how they evolved from the early 18th to the late 19th century, and examines the main points of continuity, analogy, and difference in the progress of society, public opinion, individuality, and the idea of balance. A concluding chapter looks at the early 20th century.

Genres: History

159 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 1988

About the author

John Wyon Burrow was an English historian of intellectual history. His published works include assessments of the Whig interpretation of history and of historiography generally. According to The Independent: "John Burrow was one of the leading intellectual historians of his generation. His pioneering work marked the beginning of a more sophisticated approach to the history of the social sciences, one that did not treat the past as being of interest only in so far as it anticipated the present."

Reviews

[JR Roach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows what a supreme error it is to understand 19th century liberalism through the prism of laissez-faire individualism.