I have here for sale an important book entitled ENQUIRY CONCERNING POLITICAL JUSTICE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON MORALS AND HAPPINESS by William Godwin. Vol I only. It is a second edition corrected, published by G G and J Robinson, London in 1796.  

This book was considered to be the first modern work to expound anarchism.  Despite being published during the French Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the lead up to the 1794 Treason Trials in Britain, Political Justice argues that humanity will inevitably progress: it argues for human perfectibility and enlightenment.  McCann explains that "Political Justice is ... first and foremost a critique of political institutions. Its vision of human perfectibility is anarchist in so far as it sees government and related social practices such as property monopoly, marriage and monarchy as restraining the progress of mankind."  Godwin believed that government "insinuates itself into our personal dispositions, and insensibly communicates its own spirit to our private transactions".  Instead, Godwin proposes a society in which human beings use their reason to decide the best course of action. The very existence of governments, even those founded through consensus, demonstrates that people cannot yet regulate their conduct by the dictates of reason. 

Newly and professionally rebound in half dark brown leather on orange/brown marbled hardboards.  5 raised bands, a maroon leather title block and gilt lettering to the spine.  New endpapers.  Pages very clean and firmly bound, just one or two spots.  Condition: very good.  464 pages, 23 x 14 cm.

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