Left Wing Democracy in the English Civil War

by David W. Petegorsky

Hardcover with unclipped dust jacket in very good condition. Jacket is slightly scuffed and sunned. Edges are creased and nicked. Page block and page edges are lightly tanned. Binding is sound and pages are clear. LW

Genres: History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1940

Reviews

[Rick Goff]

This brief book presents Gerrard Winstanley as “the most advanced thinker of the English Revolution… convinced that social and economic reorganization is society’s most vital and immediate need.” GW wrote several pamphlets and books between 1648 and 1652, the last being the most important, The Law of Freedom in a Platform. In brief, GW finds the artifice of private property (“mine and thine”) to be the first cause of all of the social ills present in society. He advocates an agrarian society in which “the land and the fruits thereof” provide a “common treasury” for a creative, productive population. Don’t roll your eyes. Read Winstanley and you will more than once find yourself nodding in agreement.

The Diggers are known, besides for GW’s literary output, for their brief attempt to farm on common (unenclosed) land in Surrey. Local property interests, particularly Pastor Platt, vandalized their community violently and repeatedly until the “experiment” was abandoned after less than a year.

Anyway, this book does an excellent job of reviewing the conditions that produced the Civil War. It also provides a good quick introduction of the Levellers, who are sometimes confused with the Diggers. And the latter half of the book is a clear, focused review of GW’s religious and political philosophy, the Digger movement, and GW’s proposal for a society without property. (Yes, you get your own toothbrush.)