Foundations of Modern International Thought

Between the early seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, major European political thinkers first began to look outside their national borders and envisage a world of competitive, equal sovereign states inhabiting an international sphere that ultimately encompassed the whole globe. In this insightful and wide-ranging work, David Armitage – one of the world's leading historians of political thought – traces the genesis of this international turn in intellectual history. Foundations of Modern International Thought combines important methodological essays, which consider the genealogy of globalisation and the parallel histories of empires and oceans, with fresh considerations of leading figures such as Hobbes, Locke, Burke and Bentham in the history of international thought. The culmination of more than a decade's reflection and research on these issues, this book restores the often overlooked international dimensions to intellectual history and recovers the intellectual dimensions of international history.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: rethinking the foundations of modern international thought; Part I. Historiographical Foundations: 1. The international turn in intellectual history; 2. Is there a pre-history of globalisation?; 3. The elephant and the whale: empires and oceans in world history; Part II. Seventeenth-Century Foundations: Hobbes and Locke: 4. Hobbes and the foundations of modern international thought; 5. John Locke's international thought; 6. John Locke, Carolina and the Two Treatises of Government; 7. John Locke: theorist of empire?; Part III. Eighteenth-Century Foundations: 8. Parliament and international law in eighteenth-century Britain; 9. Edmund Burke and Reason of State; 10. Globalising Jeremy Bentham; Part IV. Building on the Foundations: Making States since 1776: 11. The Declaration of Independence and international law; 12. Declarations of independence, 1776–2012.

About the Author :
David Armitage is the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University where he teaches intellectual history and international history. His many publications include The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2000), The Declaration of Independence: A Global History (2007) and, as editor, The British Atlantic World, 1500–1800 (2nd edition, 2009), British Political Thought in History, Literature and Theory, 1500–1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2006), Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and The Age of Revolutions in Global Context, c.1760–1840 (2010).

Review :
'In this masterly set of essays, David Armitage considers the significance of globalization for the past history of the European state and the political thought it generated. He sets the agenda for the next phase of research and writing on the great subject.' J. G. A. Pocock, Folger Institute and Johns Hopkins University 'This brilliantly evocative collection of essays covers the evolution of international political thought all the way from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. David Armitage has virtually created a new field of historical, and political inquiry. He has also shown just how important the concerns of the past three centuries have been to the way we think about international politics today. We are all - historians, political philosophers, policy-makers, international lawyers - greatly in his debt.' Anthony R. Pagden, University of California, Los Angeles 'David Armitage has done as much as anyone to constitute the history of international thought as a recognizable field of study among historians, political theorists, and scholars of international relations over the last decade. The vibrancy and intellectual energy of the field owe a great deal to his scholarly imagination, his breadth of historical knowledge, and his rare ability to discern and characterize problem spaces and areas of inquiry both in the past and today. This book brings together his pioneering essays on the neglected international facets of key thinkers and political moments, spanning the modern period from the early seaborne empires to the proliferation of new states in the nineteenth century. Wide-ranging, informed by a striking unity of purpose, and consistently engaging, this book gently but firmly unsettles many of the myths … that have long lain at the heart of international studies.' Jennifer Pitts, University of Chicago 'David Armitage is one of the world's leading historians of political thought. Over the last twenty years he has helped to define the ways in which historians and political theorists study the ideological dimensions of empire and international politics. Foundations of Modern International Thought collects some of his most important work. Combining virtuoso agenda-setting essays with penetrating historical studies of seminal thinkers, this landmark volume is likely to shape scholarship for years to come.' Duncan Bell, University of Cambridge 'David Armitage is one of the leading figures in the 'international' turn in intellectual history. In Foundations of Modern International Thought he brilliantly traces the various ways in which modern international relations and international law were shaped between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries. The culmination of over a decade's work and thought, this is a work of commanding erudition, by a scholar at the height of his powers, that will justly be seen as a landmark in fields as varied as intellectual history, political thought, International relations theory and international legal theory.' Nicholas Rengger, University of St Andrews 'Wide-ranging … interesting.' Morning Star 'Armitage's approach is both groundbreaking as history and relevant to our collective situation, because what he's engaged in is the historian's project at its most ambitious and rewarding.' Prospect Online 'It is a piece of well-argued scholarship and reasserts powerful claims, notably the call for internationalizing and globalizing history.' Walter Rech, International Journal of Constitutional Law '… profound and erudite …' Gilles Andréani, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy