Bruce L. Kinzer. J. S. Mill Revisited: Biographical and Political Explorations (Book Review‪)‬

Bruce L. Kinzer. J. S. Mill Revisited: Biographical and Political Explorations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2007. Pp. x + 248. ISBN 1 4039 8068 3. 45.00 [pounds sterling]. The commemorative John Stuart Mill bicentennial conference held at University College London in June 2006 has generated renewed interest in the life and work of this notable Victorian personality. In this latest offering, Bruce Kinzer, the veteran of several scholarly works focusing on various aspects of Mill's political thought, has presented his latest deliberations in a work that focuses on two important and overlapping subjects: the first group of chapters cover certain familiar biographical themes relating strictly to Mill's formative years while the latter half of the book delves into various facets of Mill's political thought and activities in relation to the ebb and flow of Victorian political life. The overall result is a finely balanced group of essays in which the author, with impressive nuance and lightness of touch, probes into pertinent features of Mill's intellectual biography.