Vox Populi: The Idea and Meaning of the People in Restoration England (McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Ideas #93)

Restoration England (1660–88), with its new coffeehouses, newspapers, early political parties, and increasingly engaged populace, saw the idea of the people’s voice become distinctly powerful. Yet that voice also generated conspiracy theories, misinformation, partisan division, censorship, and fears of civil disorder and violence.

In Vox Populi Gregory Dodds explores how assumptions about the common people and their views were entwined with ongoing political and religious conversations on the perceived choice between national security and individual liberty – debates that continue to shape public life today. Popularity within the rapidly expanding Restoration intellectual marketplace was quickly replacing the influence of elite authority. While some celebrated this shift, institutional and governmental writers responded with forceful resistance, seeking to restrict the general population’s voice and convince commoners that truth, understanding, and social order could never arise from a populist understanding of the world. Dodds argues that for elite authors, the common people therefore occupied a paradoxical position in the public arena of ideas, one where they were at once a coveted audience and rejected participants.

Drawing from texts deliberately targeting a broad audience – written by both advocates for and opponents of religious toleration and political liberty – the book offers a distinctive analysis of the concept of the people and the implications of their increasingly powerful voice in debates on political theory, policy, theology, and natural philosophy. A timely investigation into a turbulent period in England, one in which the rhetoric and reality of fear loomed large, Vox Populi helps navigate the false dichotomy between rights and safety.