First Among Equals
Visions of Equality Before Egalitarianism
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Harvard University Press
Publishing:30th Oct '26
£29.95
This title is due to be published on 30th October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
An incisive account of how equality transformed from an abstract ideal into a concrete social and political vision, thanks to seventeenth-century English dissidents like the Levellers and the political philosophers they inspired.
Today, political theorists and philosophers treat as axiomatic the claim that all persons are equal. Dig deeper, however, and what we mean by equality—and what it demands from us, politically and otherwise—is far from obvious. Does it mean that we are all the same, and so the same standards should apply indifferently to everyone? Or does it mean that we are all different in ways similarly deserving of respect? These questions, and many more, reflect the profound ambiguities and contradictions that have riddled the history of the idea of equality.
First Among Equals examines a radical turning point in that history. Since antiquity, influential legal and philosophical traditions have held that all humans are fundamentally equal. Yet these claims proved surprisingly at home in a world defined by social hierarchy, political exclusion, and enslavement. In seventeenth-century England, the meaning—and practical circumstances—of equality began to change. Political philosopher Teresa Bejan traces this transformation, revealing how equality finally became a concrete and actionable political ideal.
Crucially, Bejan shows that influential early modern theorists of equality—chief among them Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and the early feminist Mary Astell—were responding to the increasingly radical visions proffered by contemporary social movements like the Levellers, Diggers, and Quakers. Inspired by the Leveller leader John Lilburne, these movements insisted that equality must be a basis on which ordinary men and women could demand to stand shoulder to shoulder with elites. These early modern activists and philosophers can still enchant us today, Bejan argues, while also helping us to restore the power of equality as a political ideal.
In explaining how the belief in human equality eventually came to be tied to egalitarian policies, Teresa Bejan upends many basic assumptions about our past and present. This is a rare book that is accessible and compelling to nonspecialists but that will leave historians, philosophers, and political theorists with much to wrestle with too. I certainly learned a lot from it. For anyone interested in human equality, both in theory and in practice, First Among Equals is a must-read. -- Musa al-Gharbi, author of We Have Never Been Woke
Teresa Bejan has done what no scholar before her has managed: subjected equality—democracy's most sacred and least examined ideal—to the rigorous historical scrutiny it has somehow escaped. First Among Equals reveals that the idea we take most for granted in democratic politics is also the one we understand least. A landmark work of intellectual history. -- Jacob Mchangama, author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media
First Among Equals is a marvelous expansion of the story of equality that is accessible to general readers yet satisfyingly challenging to political theorists and historians of ideas. It offers an exquisitely revelatory chronicle and commentary that focuses attention on important but overlooked aspects of its subject. -- Randall Kennedy, author of Say It Loud!
If Teresa Bejan had equals, she would be first, but as this masterful book makes clear, she is in a class of her own. Combining deep historical insight with philosophical rigor and creative engagement with its sources, this is profound scholarship that genuinely tips the scales. -- Darrin M. McMahon, author of Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea
In 1646, the Leveller John Lilburne appeared for trial before the House of Lords but refused to doff his hat. I can think of no better navigator than Teresa Bejan through the treacherous crosscurrents of equality, parity, justice, dignity, and identity that converged in this and related haberdashery incidents. This book is history of ideas at its best and its most disconcerting. -- Jeremy Waldron, author of One Another’s Equals
ISBN: 9780674249332
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 28mm
Weight: 783g
400 pages