In this study the authors examine a range of theories about the state of nature in 17th- and 18th-century England, considering the contribution they made to the period’s discourse on sovereignty and their impact on literary activity. Texts examined include Leviathan , Oceana , Paradise Lost , Discourses Concerning Government , Two Treatises on Government , Don Sebastian , Oronooko , The New Atalantis , Robinson Crusoe , Dissertation upon Parties , David Simple , and Tom Jones . The state of nature is identified as an important organizing principle for narratives in the century running from the Civil War through to the second Jacobite Rebellion, and as a way of situating the author within either a reactionary or a radical political tradition. The discourse aims to provide a new perspective on the intellectual history of this period.