Godwin's masterwork of political philosophy, a huge influence on writers and thinkers from the Romantic poets to Malthus and beyond
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice established William Godwin as the chief exponent of British radicalism, in the tradition of the French Revolution. He criticizes the 'brute engine' of government for systematizing oppression of individual liberty in the name of law and order, and calls for the abolition of all forms of rule and for the institution of an anarchist society based on the principles of simplicity, sincerity and equality. His book was the first sacred text of anarchism, and remains one of the great polemics of political literature.
