True Religion and undefiled is this, To make restitution of the Earth which hath been taken and held from the common people, by the power of Conquests formerly and so set the oppressed free

Gerard Winstanley, A New Year's Gift for the Parliament and the Armie (1650)
 

The mid-seventeenth century in Britain witnessed an unparalleled ferment of ideas. In the wake of the collapse of many of the existing political structures there was an extraordinary outburst of free discussion on subjects hitherto proscribed – democracy, equality, communism, and the abolition of aristocracy and the state Church. The most searching of radical thinkers was Gerrard Winstanley, the leader of the 'Digger' movement, which proposed the free use of common land by 'the common people of England'. In 1649 Winstanley attempted to put his ideas into practice by setting up what has been termed a 'proto-communist' community near Cobham in Surrey.

This pioneering study of Winstanley and the Digger movement also offers a challenging analysis of the English Revolution and of the political ideas to which it gave rise. First published in 1940, it remains, as Christopher Hill comments in his foreword to this new edition, 'the best analysis of Winstanley's ideas, establishing him as a serious and highly significant figure in the history of political thought'. Ivan Roots's thorough introduction and updated bibliography presents Petegorsky's work in the context of subsequent argument and research on this ever-topical and highly controversial subject.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction to the Second Edition

I. The Background of the Civil War

II. The Development of Radical Political Thought During the Civil War

III. Gerard Winstanley – a Forgotten Radical

IV. The Digger Movement

V. The Political and Social Movement of the Digger Movement

VI. Winstanley's Utopia

Conclusion

Appendix I

Appendix II

Bibliography

Supplementary Bibliography