Max Skjönsberg’s “The Spirit of the British Constitution” Released by Princeton University Press

The Hamilton School is pleased to announce the publication of The Spirit of the British Constitution: Parliamentary Reform from the Civil War to the Great Reform Act by Associate Professor of Humanities Max Skjönsberg.

Published by Princeton University Press, the book offers a panoramic study of parliamentary reform in Britain from the seventeenth century to the First Reform Act of 1832. At its center is the contested idea of the “spirit of the British constitution,” a concept invoked by figures across the political spectrum—including Bolingbroke, Edmund Burke, Catharine Macaulay, William Pitt the Younger, and William Cobbett—to argue for reforms aimed at securing liberty while remaining within a constitutional framework. Scholars have already praised the work. Gregory Conti of Princeton University calls it “an indispensable book for historians, political theorists, and anyone who is interested in that fundamental question, ‘What does it mean to be free?’” Richard Whatmore describes it as “a new history of British liberty… a major work of scholarship and synthesis.”

Skjönsberg’s study challenges readers to rethink the relationship between tradition, history, and freedom in the English political tradition. The Hamilton School congratulates Professor Skjönsberg on this significant contribution to the history of political thought.

The book is available to purchase from the Princeton University Press.