More, Thomas (1478–1535)

Abstract

Sir Thomas More was a leading English humanist, statesman, and writer who was executed by Henry VIII for treason and canonized by the Roman Catholic church as a defender of the faith. More's book Utopia is his most significant and controversial contribution to political thought, and the divergent interpretations of this account of a fictional commonwealth in the New World continue to bedevil readers and political scholars nearly 500 years after its publication.