Major Works

• Two Treatises of Government

  - Recommended edition: Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (New York: 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: Some Thoughts Concerning Education, ed. Ruth Grant and Nathan Tarcov (Indianapolis: Hackett, 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

Other Works

• An Essay on the Poor Law

  - Recommended edition: Political Essays, ed. Mark Goldie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 182- 198.
  Excerpt: If the cause of this evil be well looked into, we humbly conceive it will be found to have proceeded neither from scarcity of provisions, nor from want of employment for the poor, since the goodness of God has blessed these times with plenty, no less… More

• Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina

  - Recommended edition: Political Essays, ed. Mark Goldie (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 160-181.
  Excerpt: Our sovereign lord the king having, out of his royal grace and bounty, granted unto us the province of Carolina, with all the royalties, properties, jurisdictions, and privileges of a county palatine, as large and ample as the county palatine of… More

• Observations Upon the Growth and Culture of Vines and Olives

  - John Locke, "Observations Upon the Growth and Culture of Vines and Olives" in The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, Vol. 9 (London: Rivington, 1824.)
  Excerpt: THE country, where these observations were made, hath vanity enough to over-value every thing it produces; and it is hard to live in a place, and not take some tincture from the manners of the people. Yet I think I should scarce have ventured to… More

Commentary

• Anarchy, State, and Utopia

  - Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1977).
  Excerpt: “We slow down the dramatic pace of our tale in order to consider Locke’s views on parental ownership of children. Locke must discuss Filmer in detail, not merely to clear the field of some alternative curious view, but to show why that… More

• “On the Political Character of Property in Locke”

  - Harvey Mansfield, “On the Political Character of Property in Locke,” in Powers, Possessions and Freedom: Essays in Honour of C.B. MacPherson. Ed. A. Kontos (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), 23-38.
  Excerpt: It is a curious fact that Marx, who elaborated the labor theory of value, had little to say of Locke, who originated it. Only in the manuscript called Theories of Surplus Value does he comment on Locke’s theory…”Locke’s view… More

• The Political Thought of John Locke

  - John Dunn, The Political Thought of John Locke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969).
  This study provides a comprehensive reinterpretation of the meaning of Locke’s political thought. John Dunn restores Locke’s ideas to their exact context, and so stresses the historical question of what Locke in the Two Treatises of Government was… More

• A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries

  - James Tully, A Discourse on Property: John Locke and His Adversaries (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1980).
  John Locke’s theory of property is perhaps the most distinctive and the most influential aspect of his political theory. In this book James Tully uses an hermeneutical and analytical approach to offer a revolutionary revision of early modern theories of… More

• “The Forms and Formalities of Liberty”

  - Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., "The Forms and Formalities of Liberty" The Public Interest 70 (1983), 121-131.
  Excerpt: “The populism I have described as aggressive informality is fundamentally opposed to constitutionalism, which promotes respect for forms above all. Governing in a constitutional manner is governing regularly, that is, formally. Locke wrote… More

• Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political Thought and History, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century

  - JGA Pocock, Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political Thought and History, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
  This book collects essays by Professor Pocock concerned principally with the history of British political thought in the eighteenth century. Several of the essays have been previously published (though they have not all been widely available), and several… More

• Property and Political Theory

  - Alan Ryan, Property and Political Theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1985).
  A philosophical analysis (not a history of ideas) of the relationship between work and property among a number of key western thinkers, concentrating upon how property is justified or criticized, and how it has been related to notions of citizenship. Ryan… More

• “John Locke”

  - Robert Goldwin, "John Locke" in History of Political Philosophy, eds. Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).
  Excerpt: The theme of human freedom characterizes those of Locke’s works which are most important for an understanding of his political thought: in A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), he wrote of religious freedom; in the Two Treatises of Government… 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

• An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts

  - James Tully, An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1993).
  An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts brings together Professor Tully’s most important and innovative statements on Locke in a systematic treatment of the latter’s thought that is at once contextual and critical. Each essay has… More

• The Human Condition

  - Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958).
  A work of striking originality bursting with unexpected insights, The Human Condition is in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the… 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

• The Machiavellian Moment

  - JGA Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975).
  Excerpt: “At this point is it appropriate to bring in the name of Locke. In the Two Treatises of Government, published if not written nine or so years before this debate, he had argued that societies formed by the simple occupation and cultivation of… More

• “The Charitable John Locke”

  - Steven Forde, "The Charitable John Locke," Review of Politics, 71 (2009), 428-458.
  Locke’s political philosophy, like any that centers on individual rights such as property rights, raises the question whether human beings have any duty to charity, or economic assistance, to the needy. Locke’s works contain some strong statements… More

• The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke

  - C.B. MacPherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962).
  This seminal work by political philosopher C.B. Macpherson was first published by the Clarendon Press in 1962, and remains of key importance to the study of liberal-democratic theory half-a-century later. In it, Macpherson argues that the chief difficulty of… More

Multimedia

• Steven Smith: Lectures on the Second Treatise

  - Steven Smith, "Introduction to Political Philosophy," Yale Open Courses, Autumn 2006.
  Professor Steven Smith’s lectures on Locke’s Second Treatise from Yale’s “Introduction to Political Philosophy,” available through Yale Open Courses. Autumn 2006. Constitutional Government: Locke, Second Treatise (1-5)… More