A Defence of Liberty Against Tyrants, a Translation of the Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos with an Historical Introduction by Harold J. Laski

London: G. Bell & Sons. Very Good. 1924. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. (x), 229 pages; London: G. Bell & Sons. Very Good. 1924. First Edition Thus. (x) , 229 pages; Contents clean and secure in original cloth binding with gilt lettering at spine. Original owner's name in pencil on ffep -- Paul Birdsall. A modern edition of the 1689 English translation of this sixteenth century Huguenot tract, the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos. This edition greatly enhanced by the inclusion of a 60 page historical introduction by the English political theorist Harold J. Laski. The original edition was published under the pseudonym Stephen Junius Brutus in Latin in 1579 in Brussels. It has been suggested that the work was a collaboration between Hubert Languet and Philippe de Mornay. The work proceeds through four questions concerning the response of the people to their king. The first two questions are treated briskly and concern whether a people are bound to obey or are able to resist their king when he breaks the divine law. The third and longest question considers whether the people can resist a king on the grounds that he is destroying the commonwealth. The answer to each of these questions is an affirmative. The work is interesting for the grounds that it gives a justification for popular resistance. The fourth question considers whether foreign princes can legally support a popular rising against a king on the conditions set out in the first three questions. Born into a Jewish family in Manchester, Harold J. Laski attended New College, Oxford, and then Harvard University where his reputation was established through his promotion of the doctrine of pluralism. When he returned to England in 1920, he became a leading figure in the Labour Party and the Fabian Society - while lecturing at the London School of Economics. Laski was 'the best-known socialist intellectual of his era'; his academic and intellectual importance and reputation are well established, and his work remains influential. PROVENANCE: Paul M. Birdsall (? - 1970) was a historian and diplomat. Educated at St. Paul's School, he earned his doctorate at Harvard University in 1928, where he studied under the influence of Charles Howard McIlwain. He taught European history at Williams College, and in 1936 he became Dean of Students at Williams College. He was also a trustee of Vassar College. He then entered a career in government service. During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services. In 1947, he was assistant military attaché at the U. S. Embassy in Paris. In 1948-1949 he worked for the Brookings Institution. He later served as a reserve foreign service officer in Paris and at the U. S. Embassy in Stockholm while actually working for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1949 to 1962. The American Historical Association awards a biennial prize in his honor to the author of the most important work on European military or strategic history since 1870 by a citizen of the United States or Canada. .; Law and Legal History, Philosophy and Religion, Most Recent Listing .