When the English political philosopher John Locke anonymously published Two Treatises of Government in 1689, the lack of attention that the apparently radical work received in the period of upheaval immediately following the Glorious Revolution did not is, in hindsight, nothing less astonishing. Drawing inspiration from Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan and Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy, few (if any) of Locke's contemporaries would have realized how explicitly revolutionary his ideas would prove to be. Locke's philosophical ideals, expounded primarily in the Second Treatise, were arguably more radically individualistic than any published at that time. He emphasized the importance of personal property rights, a topic that had previously been thought about and expounded upon but largely ignored at any significant political, cultural, or religious level. However, the lack of fanfare surrounding the release of his work proved entirely unrepresentative of the considerable impact his ideas would have on the course of Western society. The ideas of John Locke, much more individualistic than those of his predecessors, constituted the spark which would light, albeit a few years later, the fire of liberalization in the minds of the Western population: the Second Treaty, less than a century after its original publication, ushering in unprecedented changes in Western religious thought and practice and, more importantly, spreading across continents and oceans to serve as a beacon for two of the most major socio-political uprisings in history. modern era. Locke's influence on early modern Western society... middle of paper ... Bacon, Locke, and Newton... I consider them the three greatest men who ever lived, bar none. » James Madison, however, was more influenced by the work of John Locke than perhaps any of the other Founding Fathers. In a way, James Madison functioned as a sort of intermediary or conduit for Lockean ideas to form the basis of American society, although this is obviously an oversimplification. Due to the direct influence of its arguments against the divine right of kings, the right to revolution, and political participation as a self-interested act of each individual to protect their own material possessions, the United States of America would become , after the successful revolution, a country a society far more liberal and independent (both personally and diplomatically) than any other society the world has ever known.