Notes on contributors; Introduction David Armitage; 1. The history of British political thought: a field and its futures J. G. A. Pocock, Gordon Schochet and Lois Schwoerer; Part I. British Political Thought and History: 2. Thinking about the new British history John Morrill; 3. The matter of Britain and the contours of British political thought Colin Kidd; 4. The intersections between Irish and British political thought of the early modern centuries Nicholas Canny; 5. In search of a British history of political thought Tim Harris; Part II. British Political Thought and Literature: 6. Republicanism in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain Andrew Hadfield; 7. Dramatic traditions and Shakespeare's political thought Jean E. Howard; 8. Irony, disguise and deceit: what literature teaches us about politics Steven Zwicker; 9. Poetry and political thought: liberty and benevolence in the case of the British Empire c.1680–1800 Karen O'Brien; Part III. British Political Thought and Political Theory: 10. The nature of rights and the history of empire Duncan Ivison; 11. Reading the private in Margaret Cavendish: conversations in political thought Joanne H. Wright; 12. Reflections on political literature: history, theory and the printed book Kirstie M. McClure; 13. Here and now, there and then, everywhere and always: reflections concerning political theorising and the study/writing of the history of political thought Richard E. Flathman; 14. Afterword Quentin Skinner; Bibliography.