William Godwin: a political life

William Godwin was the first major anarchist thinker in the Anglophone world, who rocked the establishment at the beginning of the 19th century.

Famously married to Mary Wollstonecraft, father to Mary Shelley and inspiration to Lord Byron, his life and works lie at the heart of British Radicalism and Romanticism.

In this biography, Richard Gough Thomas reads Godwin afresh, drawing on newly discovered letters and journals.

He situates Godwin's early life in the counterculture of 18th-century religious dissent, before moving on to exploring the ideas of the French Revolution.

As Godwin's groundbreaking works propelled him from Whig party hack to celebrity philosopher, his love affair with Mary Wollstonecraft saw him ostracised in both liberal and conservative circles.