The Reading Room

Two Treatises of Government, a Reading Room essay

On Two Treatises of Government

Michael Fowler

If you want to read the argument the Declaration of Independence is built on, nearly sentence for sentence, read Locke.

On Two Treatises of Government

Michael Fowler

If you want to read the argument the Declaration of Independence is built on, nearly sentence for sentence, read Locke.

The Spirit of the Laws, a Reading Room essay

On The Spirit of the Laws

Michael Fowler

Three branches of government, separated so that no single hand holds all the power: the idea is so woven into how Americans imagine government that it can feel like a...

On The Spirit of the Laws

Michael Fowler

Three branches of government, separated so that no single hand holds all the power: the idea is so woven into how Americans imagine government that it can feel like a...

The Social Contract, a Reading Room essay

On The Social Contract

Michael Fowler

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

On The Social Contract

Michael Fowler

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a Reading Room essay

On A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Michael Fowler

An age was busy declaring the rights of man, and Mary Wollstonecraft asked the obvious next question that almost no one was willing to hear: what about the rights of...

On A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Michael Fowler

An age was busy declaring the rights of man, and Mary Wollstonecraft asked the obvious next question that almost no one was willing to hear: what about the rights of...

Common Sense, a Reading Room essay

On Common Sense

Michael Fowler

Common Sense made independence thinkable to ordinary people, and it did so because Thomas Paine wrote the way they spoke.

On Common Sense

Michael Fowler

Common Sense made independence thinkable to ordinary people, and it did so because Thomas Paine wrote the way they spoke.

Rights of Man, a Reading Room essay

On Rights of Man

Michael Fowler

If Common Sense made Paine the voice of the American Revolution, Rights of Man made him the most dangerous writer in Britain.

On Rights of Man

Michael Fowler

If Common Sense made Paine the voice of the American Revolution, Rights of Man made him the most dangerous writer in Britain.