Leviathan

First published in 1651, this treatise of political philosophy argues that in a state of nature, without a common power, human life is a war of every man against every man. To escape fear and insecurity, individuals covenant to authorize a sovereign - man or assembly - whose authority is undivided. Hobbes describes the generation of the commonwealth, the rights of the sovereign, the liberties of subjects, the causes of rebellion, and the relation of civil law to scripture and ecclesiastical power. The title figure is the artificial person of the state. The book is a systematic argument about obligation and peace, not a history of the English Civil Wars, though written in their shadow.

Bound in buckram blocked with artwork by Neil Gower from a design from Mike Wilks. Black slipcase.