This first comprehensive account of the utilitarians' historical thought intellectually resituates their conceptions of philosophy and politics, at a time when the past acquired new significances as both a means and object of study. Drawing on published and unpublished writings - and set against the intellectual backdrops of Scottish philosophical history, German and French historicism, romanticism, positivism, and the rise of social science and scientific history - Callum Barrell recovers the depth with which Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, George Grote, and John Stuart Mill thought about history as a site of philosophy and politics. He argues that the utilitarians, contrary to their reputations as ahistorical and even antihistorical thinkers, developed complex frameworks in which to learn from and negotiate the past, inviting us to rethink the foundations of their ideas, as well as their place in - and relationship to - nineteenth-century philosophy and political thought.

The first complete account of the utilitarians' historical thought, from which emerge new interpretations of their philosophy and politics.

About the Author
Callum Barrell is Assistant Professor of Political Thought at New College of the Humanities, Northeastern University. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate political thought and the history of philosophy.


Book Information
ISBN 9781316519073
Author Callum Barrell
Format Hardback
Page Count 300
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 550g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 158mm * 20mm