Locke's Political Thought and the Oceans - by Sarah Pemberton (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines John Locke's political thought and activity surrounding oceans with a focus on law and freedom at sea. By examining Locke's Two Treatises of Government alongside his work on England's Board of Trade, this book shows how his theoretical ideas were translated ...

Book Synopsis

This book examines John Locke's political thought and activity surrounding oceans with a focus on law and freedom at sea. By examining Locke's Two Treatises of Government alongside his work on England's Board of Trade, this book shows how his theoretical ideas were translated into laws and policies about issues such as piracy and slavery.

Review Quotes

Pemberton has achieved a remarkable feat by bringing into focus a crucial yet largely neglected aspect of Locke's political thought. Drawing on Locke's unpublished writings and a rich trove of archival material, Pemberton complements the recent colonial interpretations of Locke in important ways. The book's much welcome analysis of Locke's position on piracy, naval impressment, and convict transportation sheds fresh light on the contours and limits of his putative liberalism. Political theorists and intellectual historians will find in this book a provocative yet informed interpretation of Locke's ideas.

Sarah Pemberton's fascinating book tells the stories at the fringe of the emerging liberal economic and political order. By situating John Locke's theories in the chaos of the sea, Pemberton illuminates his attempts to solve the problems of conquest and disorder in a very pragmatic fashion. This book will provide rich theoretical frameworks for anyone interested in the origins of the political orders and disorders of our own time.

Pemberton uses original archival research and historically informed secondary scholarship to produce an insightful study of the relationship between Locke's philosophically grounded writings on the origins of government and his role as adviser for imperial policy as a member of the Board of Trade. By examining the issues of piracy, penal slavery, and forced military service (especially naval impressment), she notes the tensions in Locke's commitment to representative government and liberty and his strong advocacy of colonial settlement in the Americas that required the accoutrements of imperial power. Intersecting this tension was the felt need to turn the unemployed poor into productive citizens, using inducements and coercion to people the colonies with the labor of indentured servants. Locke's agriculturalist theory of property, combined with his natural law theory of the commons, led to his defense of open seas and advocacy of international treaties to address issues of natural and domestic law jurisdictional conflicts. Locke's writings on the oceans echo today in discussions of piracy, the extension of national sovereignty far into the ocean beds, and the defense of open international waters. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

About the Author

Sarah Pemberton is an independent scholar (PhD).