Peter Laslett

Peter Laslett (18 December 1915 – 8 November 2001) was an English historian.

Quotes

• From the point of view of our discussion, the book as a response to political and literary circumstances, its origin belongs to the autumn and winter of 1678-80, exactly a decade earlier than it is traditionally supposed to have been written. Two Treatises is an Exclusion Tract, not a Revolution Pamphlet.
  • "Introduction," in John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)

Quotes about Laslett

• Laslett’s research was methodologically as well as historically important to me, because he tried to place Locke’s text within the precise historical context that made sense of Locke’s preoccupations and commitments. I already believed in the need for such an approach, largely through my reading of Collingwood (who must surely have influenced Laslett too). But Laslett’s edition seemed to me -- and still seems to me -- to exemplify the approach brilliantly.
  • Quentin Skinner, interview at the interviewee’s home, London, 18 April 2008