Milton: Liberty in his Prose and Poetry
This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “Liberty in the Poetry and Prose of John Milton.”
Liberty in the Poetry and Prose of John Milton
Topic
As John Alvis observes in his foreword to the new Liberty Fund edition of Areopagitica and Other Political Writings of John Milton, throughout his life "John Milton pursued the one paramount project of discovering ground for his love of liberty in laws of nature and of nature's God." More specifically, there is in Milton's prose and poetry alike "the unifying theme of preparing individuals to understand and cultivate that coordination of freedoms and responsibilities that Milton identified in the phrase "Christian liberty"-that is, the freedom to work out one's salvation won for all mankind by the Savior's intercession, example, and express teachings."
Guide to the Readings
Editions used:
- John Milton, Areopagitica, with a Commentary by Sir Richard C. Jebb and with Supplementary Material (Cambridge at the University Press, 1918).
- John Milton, The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary by Evert Mordecai Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1915).
- John Milton, The Poetical Works of John Milton, edited after the Original Texts by the Rev. H.C. Beeching M.A. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900).
See also in the Online Library of Liberty:
- Subject Area: Political Thought
- Subject Area: Literature
- Topic: The English Revolution
For additional reading see:
Session I: Liberty of Thought in a Commonwealth
John Milton, Areopagitica, with a Commentary by Sir Richard C. Jebb and with Supplementary Material (Cambridge at the University Press, 1918).
John Milton, The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary by Evert Mordecai Clark (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1915).
Session II: Milton's Argument: Satan and God's Plan
Milton, Paradise Lost
Session III: The Economy of Eden: Man and Woman Before the Fall
Milton, Paradise Lost
Session IV: Satanic Liberty: Eve's Version of Liberty and Adam's Subsequent Choice
Milton, Paradise Lost
Session V: Christian Liberty and Threats Against It
Milton, Paradise Lost
Session VI: Liberty and Satan's Temptation of Christ: Understanding the Conditions of Freedom.
Milton, Paradise Regained
Reading Lists
- American Liberty in Political Documents before 1787
- An Introduction to the Major Writings of Ludwig von Mises
- British and French Sources of American Constitutionalism
- Burlamaqui, Bayle: Freedom Tolerance, Natural Law
- Cato’s Letters: Liberty and Responsibility
- Cobden: Liberty and Peace
- Constant’s Principles of Politics
- Eric Mack, An Introduction to the Political Thought of John Locke
- Gibbon and the Rise of Christianity and Islam
- Homer’s Iliad: Liberty and Responsibility
- Hume, Smith, and Ferguson: Wealth, Commerce, and Corruption
- Hume: History of England
- James Tyrrell on Authority and Liberty
- Jefferson-Hamilton Debate
- Major Political Thinkers: Plato to Mill
- Mandeville: Vice, Virtue and Liberty
- Mill-Macaulay Debate on Government
- Milton: Liberty in his Prose and Poetry
- Old Testament and English Political Thought
- Political Sermons of the Founding Era
- Rousseau and Hume: Contrasting Views of Liberty
- Shakespeare and Marlowe: Liberty in Four Plays
- Shakespeare: Liberty and Responsibility
- Sophocles and Aeschylus: Blood Justice and the Founding of Legal Order
- Tacitus: Liberty and Tyranny in the Annals
- Thomas Paine and American Liberty
- Thucydides: War, Empire, and Liberty