Major Works

• Two Treatises of Government

  - Recommended edition: Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Peter Laslett. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
  Excerpt: “Thou hast here the beginning and end of a discourse concerning government; what fate has otherwise disposed of the papers that should have filled up the middle, and were more than all the rest, it is not worth while to tell thee. These, which… More

• Some Thoughts Concerning Education

  - Recommended edition: Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education. Edited by Ruth Grant and Nathan Tarcov. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1996.
  Excerpt: “I myself have been consulted of late by so many, who profess themselves at a loss how to breed their children; and the early corruption of youth is now become so general a complaint; that he cannot be thought wholly impertinent, who brings the… More

Commentary

• John Locke and Education

  - John Yolton, John Locke and Education (New York: Random House, 1971).

• The Authoritarian Family and Political Attitudes in 17th Century England

  - Gordon Schochet, The Authoritarian Family and Political Attitudes in 17th Century England (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1988).
  This classic study of the relationship between paternal and political authority identifies patriachalism as a leitmotif of western social and political thought since the time of Plato and Aristotle. Gordon Schochet shows that patriarchal doctrines can be… More

• The Spirit of Modern Republicanism

  - Thomas Pangle, The Spirit of Modern Republicanism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
  The Spirit of Modern Republicanism sets forth a radical reinterpretation of the foundations on which the American regime was constructed. Thomas L. Pangle argues that the Founders had a dramatically new vision of civic virtue, religious faith, and… More

• Locke’s Education for Liberty by Nathan Tarcov

  - Tarcov, Nathan. Locke’s Education for Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
  From the publisher: “Locke’s Education for Liberty presents an analysis of the crucial but often underestimated place of education and the family within Lockean liberalism. Nathan Tarcov shows that Locke’s neglected work Some Thoughts… More

• “The Family in John Locke’s Political Thought”

  - Jacqueline Pfeffer, “The Family in John Locke’s Political Thought,” Polity 33 (2001), 593-618.
  What might attention to Locke’s political thought contribute to contemporary debates about the family? I consider the original Lockean understanding of the role of family in civil society as presented in Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and… More

• Duty Bound

  - Mark Blitz, Duty Bound: Responsibility and American Public Life, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
  From the publisher: In this timely and enlightening new work, Mark Blitz explores the link between character and politics in liberal democracies, focusing on the importance of responsibility in American public and professional life. He begins by analyzing the… More

• John Locke: Problems and Perspectives

  - John Locke: Problems and Perspectives, ed. John Yolton (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
  Originally published in 1969, the impetus for this collection came from a conference on the Thought of John Locke held at York University, Toronto in 1966. Written in the co-operative spirit of the conference, the essays collected here were intended to… More

• Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought

  - Scott Yenor, Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought, Baylor University Press, 2012.
  From the publisher: With crisp prose and intellectual fairness, Family Politics traces the treatment of the family in the philosophies of leading political thinkers of the modern world. What is family? What is marriage? In an effort to address contemporary… More

Multimedia

• Jeremy Waldron: Lecture on Locke’s First Treatise

  - Jeremy Waldron, “The Mother Too Hath Her Title: John Locke on Motherhood and Equality," Contemporary Civilization Course-Wide Lecture at Columbia University, November 12th, 2010.
  “The Mother Too Hath Her Title: John Locke on Motherhood and Equality”