European Political Thought, 1600-1700 (Hardcover)

The European 17th century saw the seeming resolution of two great conflicts. Through the nightmares of the Thirty Years War and the British civil wars, the murderous religious hatreds that had dominated the previous period finally burnt themselves out. Extreme Protestants were defeated, expelled, contained or subordinated, and Catholicism successfully re-established itself through much of Europe as "the" dominant religion.;Spellman studies all the great political theorists of the century (dominated inevitably by Hobbes). This work is intended for anyone studying 17th-century European history. It explains both the historical context of the thought of the period and the intellectual underpinning of the military and political events.