John Kenyon, in his study of British political debate from 1689 to 1720, claimed that "any unbiased study of the position shows in fact that it was Filmer, not Hobbes, Locke or Sidney, who was the most influential thinker of the age... Filmer's influence can be measured by the fact that both Locke... and Sidney... were not so much independent and positive contributions to political thought as elaborate refutations of his "Patriarcha", written soon after its first publication. Indeed, but for him it is doubtful whether either book would have been written."