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Alan Cromartie

Postgraduate Research Director

Areas of interest

  • The history of political thought (especially, but not exclusively, in early modern England)
  • Military ethics
  • The idea of rights
  • The philosophy of history.

Postgraduate supervision

I am always happy to discuss proposals for PhD research in the history of political thought.

Research centres and groups

Political Theory Centre

Background

I started my career as a political historian with an interest in the causes of the English Revolution. This led me to investigate the "constitutionalism" that was then a central feature of English political culture (the fact that political questions were framed in legal terms).

My book The Constitutionalist Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) explores the preconditions and the practical effects of the spread of constitutionalist assumptions.

The prominence of strategists in Reading’s research culture gave me an additional interest in thinking about war.

At present, I am writing a large-scale book about Hobbes: The Context of Leviathan: a Biographical Study.

Academic qualifications

MA, PhD (Cantab.)

Awards and honours

Programme Director of the Major Leverhulme Research Programme "The Liberal Way of War"

Professional bodies/affiliations

The Legacy of Greek Political Thought Network

    Selected publications

    Other major publications include: Sir Matthew Hale: law, religion and natural philosophy (Cambridge, 1995)

    Publications

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