Discourses Concerning Government by Algernon Sidney

CONDITION: Flaws include some fading/scratches to the gilded page edges and possible minor tears/imperfections to the endpaper, the books are otherwise new.

Written in response to Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha (1680), the Discourses Concerning Government by Algernon Sidney (1623–1683) has been treasured for more than three centuries as a classic defense of republicanism and popular government.

Sidney rejected Filmer’s theories of royal absolutism and divine right of kings, insisting that title to rule should be based on merit rather than birth; and republics, he thought, were more likely to honor merit than were monarchies. Like John Milton, Sidney revered and idealized the Commonwealth (1649–1660) as England’s noble achievement in the grand tradition of ancient Greece and Rome.

Sidney’s Discourses was widely read in the colonies and influenced a number of American revolutionary leaders.