h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've recently been researching a man called John Lilburne or Freeborn John, it turned up the fact that his work had some bearing on the american constitution ( 5th ammendmant i think i'm not familiar with it)
He was involved, during the english civil war, with a group called the Levellers. ( not the band )
It amused me to find that his museum is in america so you ( americans) obviuosly think more of him than we ( the british ) do .
Don't know if this is interesting to you just thought i'd mention him tho.( a member of my family was also involved )
If you want to know more just ask

I have some familiarity with the Levellers, as their name came up a couple of times while researching the Seeds of... article. However, I know nothing of this guy of whom you speak. More information would be appreciated.

When i figure out how to do it i'll send u the information that went in my ( short) essay
the long one takes a week to read
not v. good at this comp s**t tho it could take 4 eva!!

Lilburne was a Protestant minister who was not only very active in the Levellers, but also wrote a book on their philosophies. They were a political/religious group that supported Parliamentary reform that would have redistributed quite a bit of English land into the hands of the common people. This was all taking place at about the time of the Glorious Revolution (I think. If that's the one where all the Puritans took over Parliament, there was no monarch for a time, and ... that one guy who headed the army and virtually ran the country, the name Cornwallis is stuck in my head but I don't think that's at all right.) This group eventually splintered and the radicals called themselves the Diggers. Their philosophies of land, justice, and politics seem very socialist to me. They were all very much for the dissolution of class distinctions, equality for all men before the law, distribution of land, and voting rights. Lots of them were ministers of some denomination or other. And lots of them wrote books or pamphlets. Look them up in any encyclopedia, or better yet, a macropedia/micropedia. I also have a book called Modern Europe from a class I took last year. I'll find out the author/publisher and ISBN for you. Hope this has helped

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None of the reading I have done suggested that Lilburne was a minister altho I have been wrong b4
* "never" cry the assembled masses *
The name u r tring to think of was Cromwell at least I hope so unless someone has changed it
Also as far as I've been told the diggers and the later group the rantners were not so much splinters as seperate groups
None of wich is particularly relevant to the subject at hand ( tho equally fascinating )
I will when time permits try and extract some relevant info from my research but I have 4 essays to be in by the begining of november so I'm a bit pressed at the mo

yes! cromwell! thanks so much. i hate forgetting names.

as to the minister thing-- i could be wrong too. i haven't had time to check my old note about lilburne.

as to the diggers/levellers -- i'm just regurgitating the words of my prof. i'm pretty sure that i remember what he said correctly. however, other historians may not view this the same way he does, so there could be lots of disagreement on the subject.
hope your research project comes out okay. i'm really interested in what your doing.

neesey
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I have taken a vow of poverty. To annoy me, send money.

Its only a mini bit at the mo cos I'm filling time til I go and do a Hertige Studies degree next year
The main reason I 'm interested is cos my brother and I are both quite into political activism ourselves and when I was chatting to my dad ( who is researching our family tree ) and he turned up the fact that one of my ancestors was a "quite high up" Leveller.His name is Richard Rumbold and we can't find much out about him so I f you come across anything I'd be really interested
The majority of the stuff about this seems to be in America ( I don't get why ) so I don't seem to have much luck finding stuff !!!
Hope to hear from u

Here's why: In the UK, the Levellers and like movements were never very popular. I think it comes from the fact that they considered themselves to be the freest people on earth. That same sort of logic is pervading America right now, and we are clearly not the freest anymore. Anyway, they didn't like a lot of people speaking bad about their government, and tried to quiet the whole thing as much as possible.

In the US, however, we saw the point of these movements, and when Parliament started acting heavy-handed towards the colonies, it just fueled the fears that the Levellers had raised. That was the basis behind the rebellion. So, we've preserved the works better and researched them more heavily because they were an inspiration to the rebellion, and therefore central to our own ideology. So, quite simply, we place very high value on their work, and the UK doesn't value it very much at all.

However, I'm not researching the Levellers in any great detail just now, as they were only peripheral to the struggle. Sorry to say, I'm not likely to turn up anything on Richard Rumbold at this time.

Thanks for the info anyway
I must add though having just learnt how the american nation elects a president I don't really think you are very free at all
Could it be any more complicated ( my politics lectures are giving me headaches at the minute)

I don't think we're free at all. That was what motivated me to do this project. If I can show people where we've come from, they just might see where we're going. I've seen where we're going, and I don't like it. The electoral college is the least of our problems.

Guess so ! The fact that your two major parties symbols are a donkey ( stupid slow and smelly ) and an elephant ( stupid slow and stubborn ) says it all really. I laughed my a**e of when I found that out the other day ( in case you are wondering my politics lecturer taught at michigan uni for about 15 years and is obsessed with this bloody election I prolly know more about American politics than British ones )