J. H. Hexter (1910–1996)

A concise and perfectly-structured argument, combining close reading and biography in a memorable study of a Great Book. In Utopia, Hexter finds clues to More's personal ambivalence about the difficult decision he faced as a Christian humanist: whether to remain an independent (but impotent) social critic, or to enter the (possibly corrupting) service of Henry VIII. Apparently inspired by its time (the early fifties) and the dilemmas of the Cold War, this book feels like a genuine search for insights in one of the great political philosophers. I am withholding a fifth star only because I'm not qualified to judge it as scholarship, but I would highly recommend this to any lay reader looking for a provocative and playful and, again, very well argued little book about More's Utopia.… (mere)