Quentin Skinner’s remarkable new study surveys ‘the history of rival views of liberty from antiquity to modern times’. The book’s extraordinary scope is matched by a bold thesis, which is ethical and historical at once. The work’s central claim is that the idea of what Skinner calls ‘liberty as independence’ played a dominant role in the intellectual culture of Europe from Roman times to the 18th century. Skinner further argues that this reigning conception was supplanted in the aftermath of the American and French revolutions by a new one: a vision of freedom as the ‘absence of restraint’.

Skinner’s handling of his material is meticulous throughout. Liberty as Independence is built on a lifetime of original scholarship that began in the 1960s. Cumulatively, these labours have made him a leading authority on late-medieval and Renaissance political thought. With this new book, Skinner widens his field of expertise to encompass the 18th century. He does this with singular skill and industry, covering a wealth of sources, from philosophical tracts to political pamphlets and literary fiction. On display throughout is the author’s characteristic lucidity.

Skinner begins with republican Rome. One important influence among the Romans was the Stoic equation of freedom with self-mastery, which led to the opposition of liberty and licence. For Cicero, this contrast carried political implications. Civil freedom entailed living in a condition of ‘independence’ (meaning freedom from the arbitrary will