Bloomsbury Unpublished Manuscripts in British Idealism: Political Philosophy, Theology and Social Thought

The British Idealist movement flourished between the 1860s and 1920s and exerted a very significant influence in the USA, India and Canada, most notably on John Dewey and Josiah Royce. The movement also laid the groundwork for the thought of Michael Oakeshott and R.G. Collingwood. Its leading figures - particularly Thomas Hill Green and Edward Caird - have left a number of complete or near-complete manuscripts in various British university archives, many of which remain unpublished. This important collection widens access to this unpublished material by transcribing, editing and then publishing the most significant pieces. The project focuses on the moral, political, and religious writings - the areas of most interest to scholars. Many of these items shed significant light on areas of their thought where these philosophers were notoriously cryptic and at key points frustratingly brief. These resources provide invaluable new insights into the thought of major figures in an intellectual movement that played a pivotal role in the development of Anglo-American philosophy and theology at the turn of the twentieth century. Until now, most of these papers have been buried in archives, in frequently 'challenging' handwriting. Consequently, they have been very difficult to use in a scholarly fashion. This annotated, critical edition opens them up to the academic community.