Average customer rating:
- Best Bio on artist I have found
- Perhaps Out-of-Print, but Not Out-of-Mind!
- The only biography about an extraordinary man
- Well written, well researched and well documented.
- Excellent Read!
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Steichen: Biography, A
Penelope Niven
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Steichen, Edward
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ASIN: 0517593734
Release Date: 1997-11-11 |
Amazon.com
From his legendary association with Alfred Stieglitz in the groundbreaking 291 Gallery to his selection of photographs for The Family of Man exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, Edward Steichen (1879-1973) stood at the forefront of artistic innovation in America and Europe. Penelope Niven, biographer of Carl Sandburg (Steichen's brother-in-law), affectionately depicts her subject. She carefully assesses Steichen's three marriages, his supportive relationships with other artists, and the humanistic vision that informed his photography. Her comprehensive study reminds us of Steichen's central role in elevating photography to a crucial 20th-century art form.
Book Description
Not since 1929 has there been a biography of Edward Steichen, photographer, painter, and a pivotal yet enigmatic figure in twentieth-century art and culture on two continents. Steichen, who died just short of his ninety-fourth birthday, was fifty and internationally famous when Steichen the Photographer was written by his brother-in-law, the poet and biographer Carl Sandburg. Now Penelope Niven, whose highly acclaimed biography of Sandburg appeared in 1991, has written the first comprehensive biography of Steichen.
Here, she illuminates the full story of Steichen's avant-garde life in Paris and New York and his roles in introducing modern art to the American audience, in shaping aerial reconnaissance photography in World War I and navy photography in World War II, in revolutionizing American fashion and portrait photography through his years as chief of photography at Vanity Fair and Vogue, and in creating the unprecedented photographic exhibition The Family of Man, which has touched a global audience of millions since it opened in 1955.
Searching the world over for Steichen's letters, paintings, and photographs, Niven has reconstructed his major, pioneering achievements. Steichen's enduring contributions to the fine art of photography have not been fully recognized because they have not, until now, been fully documented and placed within the context of his times and his turbulent, romantic, and often tragic personal life.
With the help of public and private papers and interviews, Niven builds a compelling portrait of the charismatic, complex, very human man behind the camera. We explore Steichen's gardens and his artful love of nature, manifested in his obsessive achievements as a master breeder of delphinium. We step inside his intimate, private world--and view his passionate attachment to his mother, his sister, and his two daughters; the heartrending battles of his first marriage; and his alleged and actual love affairs. This biography also explores Steichen's catalytic relationships with August Rodin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Alfred Stieglitz, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and Carl and Lilian Steichen Sandburg.
"Steichen was a rebel, stubbornly independent and largely self-taught, who also believed passionately in the fundamental intersections of art and life," Penelope Niven writes. As this biography reveals, Edward Steichen's life, like his art, was brilliantly original, dramatic, and unforgettable.
Customer Reviews:
Best Bio on artist I have found.......2006-06-22
I borrowed a copy of this from a friend and found it so interesting I had to order a copy for myself. Unfortunately, its out of print and I had to settle for a used copy. If you can find one, grab it! For photographers interested in the history of our art form, it will be inspiring.
Perhaps Out-of-Print, but Not Out-of-Mind!.......2001-05-14
This is an exhaustively researched and beautifully written book about a major force in American photography and American life. There have been many academic and art books devoted to the work of Edward Steichen, and he has written about himself on one or two occasions, but never had someone written the definitive biogaphy . . . until Penelope Niven decided to do so after "getting to know Steichen" during the years she spent researching and writing about his equally famous brother-in-law, Carl Sandburg.
Readers should not be put off by the book's density (it runs to almost 800 pages). Niven is exhaustive but not exhausting, and her narrative is easy to read, detailing the long and fascinating life of an extraordinary man. The biography is also extremely accurate. Future writers in years to come will look to this book for critical source material. The author is a born researcher.
The book is presently out-of-print, a lamentable situation given the recent Whitney Museum of American Art Steichen retrospective and a dazzling new book by Steichen's widow, Joanna Steichen. This biography, if it had been available, would have been a fine accompaniment to both, giving museumgoers and general readers the chance to learn more about this American artist,and providing a counterbalance to Joanna Steichen's more visual, personal, and introspective book.
In sum, this is the grand story of the life of an important American artist, written by a biographer not an art historian. As such, it will appeal to a wide range of readers. We look for a paperback edition of this book, and can only hope one will soon be available.
The only biography about an extraordinary man.......2000-11-04
Surprisingly, this is the only biography I have found so far about Edward Steichen. Thank goodness it is an excellent one, combining extraordinary research with fine writing. For those interested in Edward Steichen's long and productive life as well as his work, this is a "must have" book, especially now that there is a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Whitney Museum in New York.
Well written, well researched and well documented........1999-08-25
Steichen was a genius, and never more so than when he influenced Alfred Steiglitz to show Picasso, Matisse, Rodin, Marin, etc for the first time ever in the United States. Steiglitz is given credit, sometimes wholly, but truly it wouldn't have happened without Steichen. I recommend this wonderful book!
Excellent Read!.......1999-05-08
This book may look formidable by its size, but what a wonderful world you will enter once you begin the story of this photographic genius and his place in time. Niven's work is carefully researched and Steichen's relationships with Steiglitz, Rodin and other artistic greats of the turn of the century are all detailed . She carefully documents his work at the Army and Navy, Vanity Fair, and MOMA. Of added interest is the story about his sister's marriage to Carl Sandburg and the close relationship Steichen and Sandburg devleoped. Enjoy!
Average customer rating:
- A wonderful well-written love story and socialist primer.
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The Poet and Dream Girl: The Love Letters of Lilian Steichen and Carl Sandburg
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
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A Great and Glorious Romance: The Story of Carl Sandburg and Lilian Steichen
ASIN: 0252068491 |
Customer Reviews:
A wonderful well-written love story and socialist primer........1998-08-22
We think of socialists in one way, Carl Sandburg was probably not it. But his letters to his soon-to-be wife, Lillian Steichen, are full of his fabulous prose and whimsy. They met briefly in January, this book takes us from then until their marriage in June. Sweet and full of love, their letters also tell the story of the socialist party in the early 1900's.
Average customer rating:
- a thoroughly nuanced account of a problematic figure
- Entirely worthwhile read.
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Stieglitz: A Memoir/Biography
Sue Davidson Lowe ,
Anne Havinga ,
Arthur Dove ,
Georgia O'Keeffe ,
Mark Strand , and
Marsden Hartley
Manufacturer: MFA Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Steichen, Edward
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Stieglitz On Photography
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O'Keeffe and Stieglitz: An American Romance
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The Photography of Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O'Keeffe's Enduring Legacy
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Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life
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Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe
ASIN: 0878466495
Release Date: 2002-09-02 |
Book Description
"Stieglitz is as scholarly a production as anyone could wish, crammed with facts and trailing informative appendixes. It is also a loving and occasionally exasperated look at a contentious relative and the intimate circumstances that formed him." --Time A tireless exponent of the avant-garde and of photography as a fine art, as well as a consummate photographer in his own right, Alfred Stieglitz was both the embodiment of rebellious New York modernism and an oddly domestic man who retained a lifelong attachment to his family's country estate. In Stieglitz: A Memoir/Biography, author Sue Davidson Lowe, Stieglitz's grand-neice, presents the man in all of his complexity, tracing his background and revealing the interplay between his character and his multifaceted career. She offers new insight into Stieglitz's relationships with artists such as Marin, Hartley, Dove, Steichen, and O'Keefe; his pioneering promotion of Europe's most radical artists through the Photo-Secession group and the 291 gallery; and his creation of some of our century's most enduring photographic images. Gracefully weaving personal reminiscence and verifiable fact as she lucidly interweaves Stieglitz's career with his personal life, Lowe presents a uniquely compelling and intimate portrait of a hugely influential, hugely enigmatic American artist.
Customer Reviews:
a thoroughly nuanced account of a problematic figure.......2006-07-07
My interest in this biography was piqued by my mounting scepticism of the claims of early 20th century modernist artists and their promoters, whether critics, collectors or curators. Much of what we think we know about early American modernism is little more than oft repeated hand-me-down information that manifests the bearer's uncritical satisfaction with the modernist enterprise. Such information serves to maintain the artist's place in the modernist temple that subsequent enthusiasts and fans have constructed and served as keepers of the flame. Critical, layered and thorough historical study reveals such notions as ideology, mere mythologizing constructs.
Readers of Ms. Lowe's exceptionally well written biography will find a fair and balanced AND critically engaged account of an adequately talented photographer who was one of the principal apologists of modernist ideas in New York, with a reputation in Europe as well. With his small enclosed (are modernist gatherings ever open?) circle of artists and holding court in his galleries, Alfred Stieglitz combatively denounced skeptical visitors who didn't or wouldn't "get it." This was was the Stieglitzian modernist "my way or the highway" pronouncement which cowed fawning acolytes.
A vorcious AND impressionable reader, he embraced Freudian ideas subsequently discredited in the later 20th century. Believing in the "pure artist untainted by commerce,Stieglitz turned against his young associate Edward Steichen when the latter became successful as an artistic commercial photographer (his career was also characterized by attracting the public; Stieglitz's publications always shed their subscribers who got fed-up with his sermonizing enthusiasms that strayed from photographic matters) Mind you, Steichen accomplished a multi-faceted career without "daddy's money," with which Stieglitz was bankrolled for much of his bohemian life (danke, PaPa!). He seems to also have been his mother's favorite.
Among the book's strong sections are its coverage of the regular gatherings of the Stieglitz clan at the family's summer house in upstate New York. Here family dynamics were played out that revealingly throw Stieglitz's personality into contrast with those of his siblings, friends and younger lover Georgia O'Keefe (one of the more over-rated American artists of the 20th century) who also shared his inflexible termperament.
The author, who spent years meticulously researching available archives (some still remain sealed), has produced a fully-orbed account of the glories and contradictions of an archetypal American modernist. It is a definitive study of Steiglitz and his personal world.
Entirely worthwhile read........2001-07-25
This is an excellent biography. Written by Sue Davidson Lowe, Alfred Stieglitz's niece, "Stieglitz : A Memoir/Biography" is written objectively, yet with the knowingness and acceptance of a relative. This book presents a well-balanced picture of Stieglitz, his accomplishments (not only his own artistic endeavors, but his efforts to make photography an accepted art form), friends, family, and life. When I was done reading this biography, I felt that I had been presented with a coherent, entertaining, and candid portrayal of Stieglitz. I have read many biographies and autobiographies, of these, I have felt that about one-fourth are well-written and worth reading -- this Stieglitz biography is one of them.
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Edward Steichen: Selected Texts and Bibliography (World Photographers Reference Series, 9)
Manufacturer: G. K. Hall & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Steichen, Edward
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ASIN: 0783818912 |
Book Description
Helga Sandburg is the youngest daughter of Carl Sandburg and his remarkable wife, Lilian Steichen. Her uncle was the great photographer Edward Steichen. Like so many other Americans today, she sought the story of her origins and inheritance, of the grandparents who were immigrants from Sweden and Luxembourg. This is the story of a daughter's search into her past, a story of beginnings and ends, of doubts and joys. It is the account of a great and glorious romance that flowered over the years and survives in this book.
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My Connemara
Paula Steichen
Manufacturer: Eastern Acorn Press
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0007HORH8 |
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Steichen: A Life in Photography
Rh Value Publishing
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Steichen, Edward
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ASIN: 0517468050
Release Date: 1985-02-23 |
Book Description
Word count: 1902.
Book Description
The levellers were a crucial component of a radically democratic movement that came together during the English civil wars. Much leveller activity occurred in print and their texts now form an important part of the liberal and social democratic canon. This edition contains an introduction by the editor that sets the leveller ideas in their context and, together with a chronology and short biographies of the leading figures, is essential reading for students of the English civil wars and the history of political thought.
Customer Reviews:
Levellers.......2005-05-07
This anthology of the standard Leveller texts is definitive. The writings themselves are somewhat wordy but often eloquent, as is typical for writing of this period. The real reason to read this is for its inspiring prefiguring of modern democratic theory: this is a forgotten classic that speaks with poignant authority through the centuries. The Putney extracts are perhaps its strongest moment, with figures of the time hashing out subtle issues of king/subject relations.
Average customer rating:
- Brilliant Bio of Paleo-libertarian Hero!
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Free-Born John: A Biography of John Lilburne
Pauline Gregg
Manufacturer: Phoenix Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1842122002 |
Book Description
"I neither love a slave nor fear a tyrant." Thus spoke John Lilburne, one of the 17th century's most vivid figures. Head of the Levellers, it was he, over 300 years ago, who spelled out to the English the true meaning of democracy. An agitator supreme, he stopped at nothing to further his cause--whether it meant attacking Cromwell or King Charles I, or "stage managing" his own trial for life as though it were a play. He had no equal. "...successfully conveys the nature of his personality as well as his ideas...authoritative and illuminating..."--C.V. Wedgwood, Daily Telegraph.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant Bio of Paleo-libertarian Hero!.......2002-11-18
John Lilburne, a brilliant pamphleteer and a passionately courageous political agitator, was the most prominent leader of the paleo-libertarian "Leveller" movement during the English Civil War of the seventeenth century.
Lilburne was tossed into prison both under the monarchy of Charles I and by the republican regime of Oliver Cromwell. Lilburne was a fervent defender of freedom of speech, of the press, and of religion. He was also an unyielding supporter of economic freedom and of the rights of private property.
Pauline Gregg, herself a democratic socialist, found it difficult to comprehend how Lilburne could be both a defender of civil liberties and a proponent of economic freedom, but she nonetheless accurately reports Lilburne's beliefs and libertarian philosophy. In a brief review, it is difficult to convey how vividly Gregg depicts the events Lilburne experienced and the courage and integrity which illuminated Lilburne's life.
Aside from his political commitments, Lilburne was also, from a mainstream twenty-first-century perspective, a religious fanatic: metaphorically speaking, he was "drunk on God." In terms of understanding the history of natural-rights/libertarian philosophy, this is a crucial fact: historically speaking, the Lockean libertarian philosophy of the American founding was born among passionate evangelical Christians, such as John Lilburne, in seventeenth-century Britain.
That historical fact is an embarrassment to modern mainstream libertarians. The mainstream modern libertarian movement, whether in the Libertarian Party, in the "Objectivist" movement founded by Ayn Rand, or in various independent think tanks, is firmly anti-religious and is dedicated to an "anything-goes" philosophy that hates government becuase of a hatred of any sort of social or ethical authority which restrains an individual from pursuing his or her own individual whims and desires.
Free-Born John is a reproach to these modern-day "libertarians." Lilburne would surely have agreed with present-day libertarians about ending the War on Drugs, abolishing the income tax, etc. But Lilburne would have seen liberation from paternalistic government and the reinstatement of natural rights as merely the first step along a path upon which an individual tried to live his life as a creature made in the image of God.
There is a dissident movement among modern libertarians, the so-called "paleo-libertarians," who take the natural-law, natural-rights perspective of John Lilburne seriously (the paleos are best represented by the Mises Institute and the Center for Libertarian Studies, both of whom offer Websites and a number of books which are available here on amazon.com). Unlike the libertarian mainstream, the "paleos" are not reflexively hostile to religion, hateful of any social authority or traditions, nor focused solely on the satisfaction of egoistic, material desires.
If you are a "paleo-libertarian," you will love this book. If you are a mainstream libertarian or a non-libertarian, you will find John Lilburne as enigmatic as did Ms. Gregg. But if you make the effort to understand this man's mind and character, you may come to better understand the nature of human liberty and of the human condition.
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Freedom in Arms: A Selection of Leveller Writings
Manufacturer: Intl Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0717804259 |
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- A significant scholarly overview
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Winstanley and the Diggers, 1649-1999
A. Bradstock
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0714681571 |
Book Description
The Diggers shared a collective vision of a common ownership of the land. Among the themes explored in these essays are the power and continuing influence of Winstanley's writings, his ideas on civil liberty, the economic and political background against which the Digger's operated, their treatment at the hands of their opponents, their attitude to women and family, and the role of the Bible in their thinking.
Customer Reviews:
A significant scholarly overview.......2005-01-03
This volume brings together papers from a Winstanley conference held in 1999 to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the Digger project. The essays are valuable for setting out clearly what can and cannot be known about Gerrard Winstanley, as well as making thoughtful comparisons with figures as diverse as John of Patmos, Milton, Blake and Marx. A couple of the papers expand upon the more general social context in which Winstanley acted. That said, these are conference papers by academic historians; literary gems they are not. Important reading, useful reading? Yes. Inspiring or inspired? Ah, no.
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- THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN-CIRCA 1650-THE LEVELLERS
- Aylmer on Natural Law
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The Levellers in the English Revolution (Documents of revolution)
G.E. Aylmer
Manufacturer: Cornell university press
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ASIN: 0801409578 |
Customer Reviews:
THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN-CIRCA 1650-THE LEVELLERS.......2006-12-14
The names John Lilburne, Robert Overton and William Walwyn, key radicals in the leftist phase of the English revolution do not come to mind when thinking of the leaders of the English Revolution like Robespierre and Saint Just do for the French Revolution and Lenin and Trotsky do for the Russian Revolution, but they should. They represented the heart of the London-centered programmatically- based plebian urban artisan democratic opposition to monarchy and hierarchic rule. Although Oliver Cromwell is, from a military perspective at least, more justly recognized as a destroyer of the principle of monarchy from a historical perspective the documents of the Levelers presented here in detail represent a precious accrual of propaganda for all later democratic movements.
As far as the English revolution is concerned this writer's sympathies lie with the social program put forth by John Lilburne and the Levellers and the social actions of Gerard Winstanley and the True Levellers (or Diggers) on Saint George's Hill. The English historian Christopher Hill's studies of those movements and others, as expressed in the religious terms of the day, initially drew me to the study of the English Revolution. Those plebian-based democratic programs in the England of the 1600's were more a vision (a vision in many ways still in need of realization) than a practical reality. Even Cromwell's achievements were a near and partially reversible thing. Such are the ways of humankind's history.
The English Revolution was by any definition a great revolution. It is therefore interesting to compare and contrast that revolution to the two other great revolutions of the modern era- the French and the Russian. The most notably thing all three have in common is once the old regime has been defeated it is necessary to reconstruct the governmental apparatus on a new basis, parliamentary rule, assembly rule or soviet role, as the case may be. The obvious contrast between revolutions is what class takes power- patricians or plebeians? That has been the underlying strain of all modern social revolutionary movements. The defeat of the Levellers and their democratic program, based as it was on the relatively small urban artisan class and their supporters in the New Model Army demonstrates that they were just a little to early in the development of the capitalist modern world to succeed.
The editor has provided a good introduction to these documents which places the struggle for adoption of such Leveller programs as the various Agreements of the People in proper perspective for those not familiar with the details of the English Revolution. I note, as the editor does, that the army played an unusually heavy role in the political struggles, especially among the plebian masses which formed the core of the army (through the `Agitators'). In an age when there were no parties, in the modern sense, the plebian base of the army is where the political fight to extend parliamentary democracy was waged. That it was defeated by military action led by Cromwell at Burford in 1649 represented a defeat for plebian democracy. Thus, the political fortunes of the Levellers rose and fell with their influence in the army. In the latter revolutions mentioned above urban-based political parties created that the army as a sword of the revolution. That is quite a different proposition Read on.
Aylmer on Natural Law.......2005-12-31
The Levellors are important in the history of libertarian thought because they mark the beginning of the Radical Liberal tradition in England. They were the first to argue for a natural right to property which was prior to and independent of any political or social structure. The Levellors are also remembered for their formulation of the concept of "self-propriety", or self-ownership as well as for their uncompromising opposition to political and economic privilege in all its forms.
Aylmer's book contains a forty-six page introduction, wherein he outlines his views concerning the Levellor period followed by reprints of 14 Levellor tracts. Richard Overton's "An Arrow against all Tyrants", William Walwyn's "A Manisfestation", "The Putney Debates", and "The (third and final) Agreement of the (free) People" are my favorite tracts.
Aylmer's treatment of the Levellors and natural law/natural rights is very useful. At the time that Parliament was challenging the Crown, the Levellors accompanied this challenge with their own libertarian tracts, debates, and speeches. Sometimes Parliament, too, was challenged by the Levellors. The Levellors' greatest influence was on the Army, although sympathies were found in the House of Commons as well. Nonetheless, most of the Levellors spent their time writing behind prison bars (writing was one way an inmate could earn money behind bars to pay for his room and board while incarcerated). After the "regicide", they quickly lost any real influence.
Aylmer says:
"The indigenous English contribution to Levellor ideas is both more particular and more elusive: it owed a great deal to the notion and partial practice of self-government, locally if not nationally, and to the tradition . . . of the individual's rights at law. The attitude of the Levellors towards the Common Law, . . . the whole English legal system, was highly ambivalent. On the one hand, they were emphatic and persistent in claiming their full rights under Magna Carta and other statutes and legal traditions not to have to answer to interrogation by which accused persons might incriminate themselves; and not to be arrested except on a magistrate's warrant, and not then to be tried save before a jury of their peers. Yet at the same time they subscribed to the historical myth of the Norman Yoke. They believed their native English to have been oppressed by their Norman conquerors, and saw all laws made since 1066 as having been largely the work of the enslaving monarchs and their military-cum-aristocratic supporters. Hence the crucial importance of how to interpret natural law . . . Natural law underlay the right of the commons . . . to take back the powers with which they had entrusted their elected rulers in the House of Commons. All power originated in the people, who merely entrusted their elected representatives with as much of it as they chose, for the sake of safety, well-being, convenience, and so on. From this in turn was to be developed the characteristic Levellor idea of a sovereign legislative body, itself subject to recall by the electors and to frequent accountability, and bound by various fundamental laws which were unalterable by statute or other enactment."
Richard Overton emerges as the most deserving of attention because as Aylmer says "he develops a non-religious doctrine of natural rights as the basis of political rights" more so than any of his compatriots. Overton begins his "An Arrow Against all Tyrants And Tyranny, shot From the Prison of Newgate into the Prerogative Bowels of the Arbitrary House of the Lords, and all other Usurpers and Tyrants whatsover" thus:
"Sir,
To every Individuall in nature, is given an individuall property by nature, not to be invaded or usurped by any: for every one as he is himselfe, so he hath a selfe propriety, else could he not be himselfe, and on this so second may presume to deprive any of, without manifest violation and affront to the very principles of nature, and of the Rules of equity and justice between man and man; mine and thine cannot be, except this be: No man hath power over my rights and liberties, and I over no mans; selfe propriety, and may write my selfe no more than my selfe, or presume no farther; if I doe, I am an encroacher and an invader upon an ohter man's Right, to which I have no Right. For by naturall birth, all men are equally and alike borne to like propriety, liberty and freedome . . ."
Aylmer says of Overton:
"These rights are implanted in Man by Nature. While God is the creator of Nature, and so their indirect author, no particular theology - Christian or other - and certainly no doctrine of Revelation, is required in order to accept these premises. It would be unwise, on the evidence available, to portray Overton as a sceptic or materialist in the modern sense, and toleration was certainly of great importance to him. Yet his political principles do seem to owe less to his religious convictions than is the case with Lilburne and perhaps . . . Walwyn."
Especially with Overton, the means by which the privacy and autonomy of the individual are defined is property. Each person has an imprescriptible right of ownership in his and her own body. The right of property defines an inviolable space around the individual and thus protects him from the invasion of others.
Rights also provide a sound method by which social conflicts can be avoided or, if necessary, be resolved. To respect property rights, one needs a legal system whose function it is to protect individual property rights. The Common Law traditionally was tasked to do this and to adjudicate the conflicting claims to property which are the inevitable result of even well-intentioned human interaction.
Aylmer cannot decide whether the Levellors are radical democrats or libertarian individualists. Most importantly for the libertarian political theorist are their ideas on property rights, self-ownership, free trade, and their profound influence on the history of classical liberal political theory.
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Britain's First Socialists
Fenner Brockway
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Cromwell, les Niveleurs et la republique (Bibliotheque sociale)
Olivier Lutaud
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