Thomas Hobbes und die englische Revolution: 1640-1660.

Metzger's study of the immediate circumstances behind the creation of Hobbes's major works, from the Elements of law to Leviathan, is clear and concise, and it embodies as scientific an approach to history as Hobbes himself might have wished to see develop in the wake of his own 'science of politics'. There is much to applaud in this account of a much-studied subject, but there are also some matters to regret, most of which relate to Metzger's historical method. Typically, his austere approach to intellectual history (replete with a short section devoted to a notion of 'Hobbes-reception during the Protectorate'), fails to engage with the fascinating question of Hobbes's style …