Gerrard Winstanley: The Radicalism of the Good Son

At the same time that Hobbes published Leviathan, Gerrard Winstanley wrote and worked to oppose market institutions and possessive individualism. He has not had much of an audience, and this neglect of him, Professor Shulman thinks, would seem to have been undeserved. He submits that Winstanley's argument takes account of both class interests and unconscious motives while avoiding reductionism about meaning, action, and politics. Based on an understanding of reverence, it offers a useful perspective on some of the enduring issues in radical thought and action.