"This is a clever and perceptive book about an important, largely neglected and ultimately elusive Parliamentarian pamphleteer of the 1640s....an excellent book that places Henry Parker in a clearer light and that also illuminates the cultural assumptions of his contemporaries." Canadian Journal of History

• Preface; 1. The public's privado; 2. The ship money case and The Case of Shipmony; 3. Religio laici; 4. Observations and the political theory of the emergency; 5. The Observator observed; 6. 'Vaine Confidence in the Law': the Observator responds; 7. Diverse urgent emergent considerations; 8. Disputable and visible politics; Conclusion: contrary points of war; Appendix: the writings of Henry Parker.

"This is a clever and perceptive book about an important, largely neglected and ultimately elusive Parliamentarian pamphleteer of the 1640s....an excellent book that places Henry Parker in a clearer light and that also illuminates the cultural assumptions of his contemporaries." Canadian Journal of History

• Preface; 1. The public's privado; 2. The ship money case and The Case of Shipmony; 3. Religio laici; 4. Observations and the political theory of the emergency; 5. The Observator observed; 6. 'Vaine Confidence in the Law': the Observator responds; 7. Diverse urgent emergent considerations; 8. Disputable and visible politics; Conclusion: contrary points of war; Appendix: the writings of Henry Parker.