Thomas More

Thomas More remains one of the most enigmatic thinkers in history, due in large part to the enduring mysteries surrounding his best-known work, Utopia. He has been variously thought of as a reformer and a conservative, a civic humanist and a devout Christian, a proto-communist and a monarchical absolutist. His work spans contemporary disciplines from history to politics to literature, and his ideas have variously been taken up by seventeenth-century reformers and nineteenth-century communists.

Through a comprehensive treatment of More’s writing, from his earliest poetry to his reflections on suffering in the Tower of London, Joanne Paul engages with both the rich variety and some of the fundamental consistencies that run throughout More’s works. In particular, Paul highlights More’s concern with the destruction of what is held in ‘common’, whether it be in the commonwealth or in the body of the church. In so doing, Paul reestablishes More’s place in the history of political thought, tracing the reception of his ideas to the present day.

Paul’s book serves as an essential foundation for any student encountering More’s writing for the first time, as well as providing an innovative reconsideration of the place of his works in the history of ideas.

Joanne Paul is Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Sussex.