Category: English, English literature, University of Oxford

Bodleian Library, Oxford Dec 2007 - Apr 2008 Introduction John Milton was born 400 years ago, and his ideas about citizenship are still relevant to us today. The author of the greatest epic poem in English, Paradise Lost , was also a reforming prose writer, a member of a revolutionary government, and the victim of censorship, whose daring positions we now consider vital to modern governance. Advocate of freedom of the press, transparency in government, public debate, education for liberty, the right to divorce, the disestablishment of the church and the abolition of monarchy, Milton espoused positions radical even by today's standards.