This volume presents a many-faceted view of the Oxford philosopher R. G. Collingwood. At its centre is his Autobiography, published in 1939, which has the status of a cult classic for its compelling 'story of his thought'. Collingwood's work has enjoyed renewed attention in recent years, with new editions of his great philosophical works. This volume republishes the Autobiography alongside a previously unpublished account by Collingwood of a journey to the East Indies in 1938-1939. These writings are accompanied by eleven specially written essays. Several of these examine aspects of Collingwood's life—not just the Autobiography, but what he doesn't discuss in that work, from his childhood to his professorship at Oxford. And the essays also examine aspects of his work on philosophy, politics, history, and archaeology, in the context of his life.

This is the first comprehensive study of the political philosophy of the British philosopher R. G. Collingwood, best known for his contributions to aesthetics and the philosophy of history. However his political thought, and in particular his book The New Leviathan, have been neglected, even dismissed in some quarters. Professor Boucher argues for the importance of this political theory and provides a perspicuous account of its development and originality. He contends that The New Leviathan is an attempt to reconcile philosophy and history, theory and practice. Collingwood's distinctive contribution to modern political and social thought is seen as his sustained project of distinguishing utility from right, and right from duty; the passion for history coincides with the ethical thought because Collingwood wishes to identify dutiful, or moral, action with a historical civilization. Drawing on a wealth of manuscript material, this book will prove invaluable to political philosophers and intellectual historians.

Since the Enlightenment, liberalism as a concept has been foundational for European identity and politics, even as it has been increasingly interrogated and contested. This comprehensive study takes a fresh look at the diverse understandings and interpretations of the idea of liberalism in Europe, encompassing not just the familiar movements, doctrines, and political parties that fall under the heading of “liberal” but also the intertwined historical currents of thought behind them. Here we find not an abstract, universalized liberalism, but a complex and overlapping configuration of liberalisms tied to diverse linguistic, temporal, and political contexts.

The early twentieth century witnessed the emergence of Scottish and Quebec nationalisms that were closely intertwined with liberal philosophies. The Young Scots' Society and the Ligue nationaliste canadienne carried these liberal nationalist ideas. This book offers a comparative and historical examination of their ideas and politics, exploring the Young Scots as a movement, as well as the ideas of key Nationalistes. James Kennedy argues that the growth of the Young Scots' Society and the Ligue nationaliste canadienne was largely in response to changes within empire, state, and civil society. He suggests that the actions of the British Empire and the Canadian state not only prompted nationalist responses in Scotland and Quebec respectively, but also shaped their liberal character. His comparative analysis provides insights that would not arise from a single case study of either movement, while detailing the important roles that geopolitics, consociation and federation, and organized religion played in the creation of nationalist philosophies. The first-ever comparative history of nationalism in Scotland and Quebec, Liberal Nationalisms is an insightful study of nascent political nationalisms and a major contribution to the scholarship of nationalist movements in the early twentieth century.

"Liberalism" is widely used to describe a variety of social and political ideas, but has been an especially difficult concept for historians and political scientists to define. Burckhardt, Mill, and Tocqueville define one type of liberal thought. They share an aristocratic liberalism marked by distaste for the masses and the middle class, opposition to the commercial spirit, fear and contempt of mediocrity, and suspicion of the centralized state. Their fears are combined with an elevated ideal of human personality, an ideal which affirms modernity. All see their ideals threatened in the immediate future, and all hope to save European civilization from barbarism and militarism through some form of education, although all grow more pessimistic towards the end of their lives. Aristocratic Liberalism ignores the national boundaries that so often confine the history of political thought, and uses the perspective thus gained to establish a pan-European type of political thought. Going beyond Burckhardt, Mill, and Tocqueville, Aristocratic Liberalism argues for new ways of looking at nineteenth-century liberalism. It corrects many prevalent misconceptions about liberalism, and suggests new paths for arriving at a better understanding of the leading form of nineteenth-century political thought. The new Afterword by the author presents a novel description of liberal political language as the "discourse of capacity," and suggests that this kind of language is the common denominator of all forms of European liberalism in the nineteenth century. Aristocratic Liberalism will be valuable to students of history, political science, sociology, and political philosophy.