Discourses Concerning Government – Algernon Sidney – 1750 | English Political Thought

Algernon Sidney was a 17th-century English politician known for his vast collection of letters and memoirs. During the reign of Charles II and the Exclusion Crisis, Sidney became overwhelming opposed to any form of absolute monarchy as a political form. He wrote his work ‘Discourses Concerning Government’ in which he pushed the idea that people had a right to choose the government under which they lived.

Discourses, along with John Locke’s treatises on government, has long been known as one of the books in which the founding fathers of America studied as a means of establishing the American government. Coincidentally, Sidney’s masterpiece has been nicknamed ‘the textbook of the American Revolution’ by Caroline Roberts.

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Discourses Concerning Government, with his Letters, Trial, Apology, and Some Memoirs of his Life
• Author(s): Algernon Sidney
• Publisher: Edinburgh: Printed for G. Hamilton and J. Balfour
• Edition: First Scottish Edition. 1750.
• Format: (4to), two volumes
• Binding: Full leather
• Size:  11.75 x 9.75 in (30 x 25 cm)
• Collation: [5], 46, [7], 497, [1], 198
• Contents Include:
  • Discourses Concerning Government
  • Letters of Algernon Sidney
  • Trial and Apology
  • Memoirs of His Life
• Provenance: bookplate – Ex Libris, Peter Stewart Young Tillingham

Condition:

Very Good. Bound in full leather with moderate wear at edges and corners. The text block is tight and well secured. A careful repair is visible at the front inner hinge. Preliminary leaves display mild staining and light toning consistent with eighteenth-century paper.

Why Collect This?

• Complete text with letters, trial, and memoirs
• Foundational work of republican and constitutional theory
• Printed by Scottish publishers active in Enlightenment-era production, first Scottish printing

Item Number: # 29477