Two Treatises of Civil Government
John Locke
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
The Two Treatises of Civil Government is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise is an extended attack on Sir Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, which argued for a divinely-ordained, hereditary, absolute monarchy. The more influential Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society based on natural rights and contract theory. Locke begins by describing the "state of nature," and goes on to explain the hypothetical rise of property and civilization, asserting that the only legitimate governments are those which have the consent of the people.
Locke's ideas heavily influenced both the American and French Revolutions. His notions of people's rights and the role of civil government provided strong support for the intellectual movements of both revolutions. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia) (11 hr 4 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Prescient
Abner Solomon
All but one of the readers are fantastic. I feel robbed for not having been exposed to this information at an early age. It makes all the reasons for western civilization bare. And it arms us to recognize the wolves in sheep's clothing who want to take away our rights and disregard the law of nature. Each child should have to memorize chapter 19 of Book 2 before graduating high school.
Please disregard previous review
aeontwo
This is an exemplary reading of a philosophical text. The first reader has a clear, beautifully modulated voice with excellent enunciation. The recording quality is fine. The text is delivered at exactly the sort of speed needed to convey the ideas, and the reader evidently understands fully everything she narrates. The subsequent readers also are fully competent. To give this audiobook a "lowest" rating is absurd. Time-wasters like the previous reviewer are stupidly abusive and I only hope that the readers are not affected in the slightest by such inconsiderate rubbish and will go on using their own free time to give us superb productions like this.
Joining in on Booing PhilyFlowers off the stage
Donald R Miller
This is a very good community reading, and while one person didn't live up to PhilyFlower's high standards for receiving free-volunteered material, no one does a bad job, at all.
A must read
NSA
I highly recommend this writing to any student of government or liberty. Most recording are good, but one reader was slow and another hard to understand at times with his accent.
ok reading
Steven H.
some of the chapters are pretty tough to understand what the person is saying
David Colqui
It was really good up until the part where the dude from India started reading.
brilliant and as relevant today as when written!
A LibriVox Listener
well read as well. Thank you.
great reading
A LibriVox Listener
This was a really good reading, especially the first treatise. Thanks.