Kirstie McClure and the Textures of Political Thought

Drawing on one of Kirstie McClure’s unpublished essays on John Locke’s use of language in his letters from exile in Holland, and recalling her fondness for an intriguing image from the frontispiece of John Bulwer’s seventeenth-century study of gesture, Chirologia, this essay reflects on the relationship between McClure’s unusual approach to the interpretation of early modern political thought, rooted in the study of rhetoric and print culture, and her efforts to navigate the disciplinary politics of political theory and political science. In a tribute to the lateral style of McClure’s imagination that her friends will recognize, cameo appearances are also made by Cicero, Augustine, and sheep.