About this episode

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the Levellers and their impact on legal and social equality during the English Civil War.

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the group which came to be known as the Levellers and emerged during what would become arguably one of the bloodiest and most turbulent periods of English history. After the First English Civil War, the Levellers started calling for reforms to achieve legal and social equality. They pushed for a new constitution, extended franchise, popular sovereignty, and religious toleration. To do this, the Levellers pioneered the use of pamphlets and petitions, as well as taking to the streets in their thousands to demonstrate wearing their signature sea-green ribbons and sprigs of rosemary. To some they were radical, and to others not radical enough. Though the Leveller movement itself may have been short-lived, the arguments that they made have both inspired and challenged generations since. With Teresa Bejan Professor of Political Theory and Fellow of Oriel College, University of Oxford Ted Vallance Professor of History and Dean of Research and Doctoral Study at the University of Roehampton And Clare Jackson Honorary Professor of Early Modern History and Walter Grant Scott Fellow in History at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge Producer: Martha Owen…

People in this episode

Host: Misha Glenny

Guests: Teresa Bejan, Ted Vallance, Clare Jackson

Topics covered

• Levellers
• English Civil War
• political reform
• social equality
• historical movements

Keywords

• Levellers
• English history
• civil rights
• political theory
• pamphlets

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Oxford, University of Roehampton, Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge

Books & works: First Among Equals: Visions of Equality before Egalitarianism, The Common Freedom of the People: John Lilburne and the English Revolution, The Levellers; Radical Political Thought

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