Order and Conflict

This book provides a careful and systematic analysis of Anthony Ascham’s career and writings for the first time in English. During the crucial period between the Second Civil War and the establishment of the English Republic, when he served as official pamphleteer of the Parliament and the republican government, Ascham put forward a complex argument in support of Parliament’s claims for obedience which drew on the political thought of Grotius, Hobbes, Selden, Filmer and Machiavelli. He combined ideas taken from these authors and turned them into a powerful instrument of propaganda to be deployed in the service of the political agenda of his Independent patrons in Parliament. This investigation of Ascham’s works brings together an intellectual analysis of his political thought and an exploration of the interaction between politics, propaganda and political ideas.