QUENTIN SKINNER is Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College.

'Quentin Skinner is one of the world's foremost historians of political thought … As a retrospective showcase of the work of a major scholar, this is impressive. Skinner's ability to combine political and philosophical insight with minute knowledge of several centuries of political literature is awe inspiring.' Robert Sugden, The Times Higher Education Supplement

• General preface; Full contents: volumes 1–3; Acknowledgements; Conventions; Volume 1: Regarding Method: 1. Introduction: seeing things their way; 2. The practice of history and the cult of the fact; 3. Interpretation, rationality and truth; 4. Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas; 5. Motives, intentions and interpretation; 6. Interpretation and the understanding of speech acts; 7. 'Social meaning' and the explanation of social action; 8. Moral principles and social change; 9. The idea of a cultural lexicon; 10. Retrospect: studying rhetoric and conceptual change; Bibliography; Index.

QUENTIN SKINNER is Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College.

'Quentin Skinner is one of the world's foremost historians of political thought … As a retrospective showcase of the work of a major scholar, this is impressive. Skinner's ability to combine political and philosophical insight with minute knowledge of several centuries of political literature is awe inspiring.' Robert Sugden, The Times Higher Education Supplement

• General preface; Full contents: volumes 1–3; Acknowledgements; Conventions; Volume 1: Regarding Method: 1. Introduction: seeing things their way; 2. The practice of history and the cult of the fact; 3. Interpretation, rationality and truth; 4. Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas; 5. Motives, intentions and interpretation; 6. Interpretation and the understanding of speech acts; 7. 'Social meaning' and the explanation of social action; 8. Moral principles and social change; 9. The idea of a cultural lexicon; 10. Retrospect: studying rhetoric and conceptual change; Bibliography; Index.