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The English origins of modern democracy

Dr Rachel Hammersley, Newcastle University

Date/Time: Thursday 3 May 2018

Modern democracy is not merely the product of 18th-century revolution and 19th-century reform. Democratic ideas had been part of English political debate for two centuries by the time of the American Revolution in 1776. In celebration of May Day – a day closely associated with Englishness, popular action and workers’ rights – this lecture looked at the history of democratic thought in early-modern England.