The author presents an account of Milton's political philosophy set in the closest relationship to his personal and intellectual history as a political man during the English revolution, the decisive event of his life and time. He follows Milton's mind in its political manifestations from his earlier poetry before the outbreak of revolt against the Stuart monarchy, through his activity as a passionate partisan and revolutionary publicist in the decades 1640-1660, to his final work as an epic poet following the revolution's failure and the restoration of Charles II in 1660. Throughout his life, Milton saw his political beliefs and his idea of the poet as prophet and teacher of nations as being inseparable; the principle of aristocracy linked to virtue also played a prominent part in his moral and political philosophy, which helps to explain many of his enduring attitudes and values. His successive political writings and basic conceptions as a rebel against the existing political and religious order, traced in this study, demonstrate the fundamental continuity in his political values in spite of the disillusion he experienced in his political life, and ensure his place in the English republican tradition.
Perez Zagorin (1920-2009) was the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Rochester and a fellow of the Shannon Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Virginia. He was the author of many articles and a number of books, including "How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West" and "Francis Bacon" (both Princeton).
