本書作者昆廷•斯金納畢業於劍橋大學。1978年齣版《近代政治思想的基礎》一書，齣版後獲得好評，被認為是思想史研究中的“斯金納的革命”。同年，年僅38歲的昆廷•斯金納擔任劍橋大學教授。此後，斯金納教授齣版瞭《馬基雅維裏》、《霍布斯哲學中的理性和修辭》、《自由主義之前的自由》等。2002年，他又齣版三捲本巨著《政治的識界》。因其卓越的學術貢獻，斯金納教授榮任為劍橋大學欽定近代史講座教授。在國際學術界，作為思想史研究“劍橋學派”的代錶性人物，昆廷•斯金納被公認為一位著名的思想史傢，也是一位思想傢。 在目前西方學術界,對思想史特彆是政治思想史的研究以斯金納為代錶的"劍橋學派"成為瞭主流,其在學術界的地位和影響,被芬蘭學者帕羅內稱之為思想史研究中的"斯金納的革命 ”斯金納目前是劍橋曆史係教授、英國皇傢科學院院士、劍橋學派的掌門人 ,是”劍橋三劍客”之一.

Quentin Skinner is one of the foremost historians in the world, and in Hobbes and Republican Liberty he offers a dazzling comparison of two rival theories about the nature of human liberty. The first originated in classical antiquity, and lay at the heart of the Roman republican tradition of public life. Thomas Hobbes was the most formidable enemy of this pattern of thought, and his successive attempts to discredit it constitute a truly epochal moment in the history of Anglophone political thought. Hobbes and Republican Liberty develops several of the themes announced by Quentin Skinner in his celebrated inaugural lecture on Liberty before Liberalism of 1997. Cogent, engaged, accessible, and indeed exhilarating, this new book will appeal to readers of history, politics, and philosophy at all levels from upper-undergraduate upwards, and provides an excellent introduction to the work of one of the most celebrated thinkers of our time.