Alan Cromartie
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+44 (0) 118 378 6781
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Professor
Postgraduate Research Director
Areas of interest
- The history of political thought (especially, but not exclusively, in early modern England)
- Military ethics
- The idea of rights
- The philosophy of history.
Postgraduate supervision
I am always happy to discuss proposals for PhD research in the history of political thought.Research centres and groups
Political Theory Centre
Background
I started my career as a political historian with an interest in the causes of the English Revolution. This led me to investigate the "constitutionalism" that was then a central feature of English political culture (the fact that political questions were framed in legal terms).
My book The Constitutionalist Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) explores the preconditions and the practical effects of the spread of constitutionalist assumptions.
The prominence of strategists in Reading’s research culture gave me an additional interest in thinking about war.
At present, I am writing a large-scale book about Hobbes: The Context of Leviathan: a Biographical Study.
Academic qualifications
MA, PhD (Cantab.)Awards and honours
Programme Director of the Major Leverhulme Research Programme "The Liberal Way of War"Professional bodies/affiliations
The Legacy of Greek Political Thought Network
Selected publications
Other major publications include: Sir Matthew Hale: law, religion and natural philosophy (Cambridge, 1995)