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Second Treatise of Government

by John Locke

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First published: 1690
Pages: 147

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About this book

In one of the founding texts of modern political thought, Locke argues that legitimate government rests on the consent of the governed, that all people possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property, and that citizens may justly resist rulers who violate their trust. Written amid the upheavals of seventeenth-century England, the Second Treatise laid the intellectual foundations of liberal democracy and directly inspired the American Declaration of Independence. Clear, rigorous, and revolutionary, it reshaped how the world understands authority, freedom, and the rights of the individual against the state. Enduringly influential, Locke's Second Treatise of Government remains essential reading for anyone who would understand the origins of modern liberty and self-government.

About the author

John Locke

The Two Treatises of Government appeared anonymously in 1689, and Locke denied authorship until his will. The first demolishes Robert Filmer's claim that kings inherit their authority from Adam; the second builds government on consent instead, on natural rights to life, liberty and property, and on the right of a people to remove a ruler who breaks the trust...