James Harrington s brief career as a political and historical theorist belongs to the last years of the Cromwellian Protectorate and the Restoration of 1660.This volume comprises the fnst and last of Harringtons writings，offering for the frrst time in intellectual history an explanation of the English Civil Wars as a revolution produced by the decay of the old political structure and its substitution by another through long-term social change.The Commomwealth of Oceana （1656）is a flctionalised presentation of English history up to the victory of the New Model Army，explaining the fall of the monarchy and proposing a republic to replace it.A System of Politics，written after the Restoration，is a scheme of history and political philosophy erected on the foundations of his previsous works.Professor Pocock s lucid introduction emphasises Harrington s place as a pivotal fgure in the history of English political thought，and presents him as among the last English political Platonists and the frst philosophical historians.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the history of ideas，early modern history，and political theory，and contains a chronology of events in Harrington s life and a guide to further reading as aids to the reader.
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