Political Theory Books

Thomas Paine : Collected Writings : Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man / The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters (Library of America)

Thomas Paine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Beautiful collection of Paine's writings 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is my go-to book whenever I don't know what I want to read next. The only problem with this collection is that it's incomplete, but that's nothing new. I have yet to find a book that has everything Paine ever wrote. The majority of his writings are included, however, so if you're looking for a good Thomas Paine collection, you can't go wrong with this book. As with the other Library of America books I've seen, the end notes are extensive and the binding is top notch.

Remember our origins 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent collection of the evident, palpable reasons for self-rule, written for the common folk of the time in an inspiring style. Now more than ever we need to revisit the foundations of self-rule and individual rights. Freedom is not easy; it is hard. Freedom is not safe; it is dangerous. RS

Editorial Review:

Paine was the impassioned democratic voice of the Age of Revolution, and this volume brings together his best-known works--"Common Sense," "The American Crisis," "Rights of Man," "The Age of Reason," along with a selection of letters, articles and pamphlets that emphasizes Paine's American years.

The Essential Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In a single volume, the seminal writings of the world's leading philosopher, linguist, and critic, published to coincide with his eightieth birthday.

For the past forty years Noam Chomsky's writings on politics and language have established him as a preeminent public intellectual and as one of the most original and wide-ranging political and social critics of our time. Among the seminal figures in linguistic theory over the past century, since the 1960s Chomsky has also secured a place as perhaps the leading dissident voice in the United States.

Chomsky's many bestselling works—including Manufacturing Consent, Hegemony or Survival, Understanding Power, and Failed States—have served as essential touchstones for dissidents, activists, scholars, and concerned citizens on subjects ranging from the media to human rights to intellectual freedom. In particular, Chomsky's scathing critiques of the U.S. wars in Vietnam, Central America, and the Middle East have furnished a widely accepted intellectual inspiration for antiwar movements over nearly four decades.

The Essential Chomsky assembles the core of his most important writings, including excerpts from his most influential texts over the past forty years. Here is an unprecedented, comprehensive overview of Chomsky's thought.

The Republic Of Plato: Second Edition

Plato

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Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Political Theory and Philosophy 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

The main arguments of The Republic are so well known that they hardly need restatement in this review. The central issues in this book are of great importance, but one should also take note of the side issues that Plato raises in political theory and philosophy.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this book is its coverage of issues in theoretical politics. The Republic covers so much ground in Political Theory and Political Philosophy that it is hard to see any other great thinker as completely original. Plato hinted at or mentioned ideas in politics later developed by Rousseau, Marx, Nietche, Hayek... All political theorists should cite Plato, because he thought of practically everything of importance in political theory.

Personally, I find Rousseau more interesting as a pure political philosopher, but that is not saying much. Rousseau was an absolute genius. Plato had brilliant insights in political philosophy, and he anticipated important elements of Rousseau's work anyway.

The Republic does have an Achilles heel: economics (or political economy). The problem here is not so much that he was wrong about economics, but rather than he passed over this subject. Much of what Plato wrote about his ideal Republic is hard to defend in light of economic theory. Some might think me unfair for criticizing Plato by modern standards, but general economic laws were neither different nor unintelligible in Plato's time. Furthermore, Aristotle had a few insights that fit with what we now know as economics. How could someone as brilliant as Plato not see the issues in his book from "the economic point of view"? After all, key elements of modern economics boil down to common sense. Furthermore, there are subtleties to modern economics that raise serious problems with his idea of rule by a philosopher-king.

The lack of economic reasoning in The Republic does not really detract much from its greatness. Given the situation in the ancient world, it was only natural that great thinkers would focus on politics, and pass over economics. Economic issues did not really become apparent until the first wave of Globalozation began, so Plato should have focused on politics instead. That being said, Plato's Republic stands as THE most important book of Political Theory ever written.

This edition of The Republic is important because it includes Alan Blooms interpretive essay. Bloom makes you think more deeply about Plato. This book is a must-have for anyone with serious interest in political or interdisciplinary academic interests.

Editorial Review:

Long regarded as the most accurate rendering of Plato’s Republic that has yet been published, this widely acclaimed work is the first strictly literal translation of a timeless classic. This second edition includes a new introduction by Professor Bloom, whose careful translation and interpretation of The Republic was first published in 1968. In addition to the corrected text itself there is also a rich and valuable essay—as well as indexes—which will better enable the reader to approach the heart of Plato’s intention.

Tocqueville: Democracy in America (Library of America)

Alexis de Tocqueville

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Editorial Review:

Alexis de Tocqueville, a young aristocratic French lawyer, came to the United States in 1831 to study its penitentiary systems. His nine-month visit and subsequent reading and reflection resulted in Democracy in America (1835–40), a landmark masterpiece of political observation and analysis. Tocqueville vividly describes the unprecedented social equality he found in America and explores its implications for European society in the emerging modern era. His book provides enduring insight into the political consequences of widespread property ownership, the potential dangers to liberty inherent in majority rule, the importance of civil institutions in an individualistic culture dominated by the pursuit of material self-interest, and the vital role of religion in American life, while prophetically probing the deep differences between the free and slave states. The clear, fluid, and vigorous translation by Arthur Goldhammer is the first to fully capture Tocqueville’s achievements both as an accomplished literary stylist and as a profound political thinker.

Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Get the Library of America Edition 2 out of 5 stars.
12 of 14 people found this review helpful.

This 170-year-old book by a young French aristocrat remains one of the most frequently quoted analyses of what Toqueville famously calls America's "habits of the heart."

If you're interested in reading Toqueville for yourself and not through the eyes of some commentator, what version should you get?

Instead of this one, I recommend the Library of America edition Tocqueville: Democracy in America (Library of America). First, the translation by Arthur Goldhammer is smoother and more comprehensible, without informality or paraphrase. Second, the Goldhammer translation is not burdened by political leanings or excessively scholarly apparatus. Third--and not unimportant--the Library of America volume is smaller and easier to hold and provides a more pleasant reading experience.

Editorial Review:

When it was first published last year, Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop's new translation of Democracy in America was lauded in all quarters as the finest and most definitive edition of Tocqueville's classic thus far—complete with the most faithful and readable translation to date, impeccable annotations of unfamiliar references, and a masterful introduction placing the work and its author in the broader contexts of political philosophy and statesmanship. Mansfield and Winthrop's astonishing efforts have not only captured the elegance, subtlety, and profundity of Tocqueville's original, but also give us some sense of how very essential this masterpiece continues to be.

Security, Territory, Population (Lectures at the College De France)

Michel Foucault

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Marking a major development in Foucault's thinking, this book derives from the lecture course which he gave at the Collège de France between January and April, 1978. Taking as his starting point the notion of "bio-power," introduced in his 1976 course Society Must be Defended, Foucault sets out to study the foundations of this new technology of power over population. Distinct from punitive, disciplinary systems, the mechanisms of power are here finely entwined with the technologies of security, and it is to 18th century developments of these technologies with which the first chapters of the book are concerned. By the fourth lecture however Foucault's attention turns, focusing on a history of "governmentality" from the first centuries of the Christian era to the emergence of the modern nation state. As Michel Sennelart explains in his afterword, the effect of this change of direction is to "shift the center of gravity of the lectures from the question of biopower to that of government, to such an extent that the former almost entirely eclipses the former ..." Consequently, in light of Foucault's later work, it is tempting to see these lectures as the moment of a radical turning point at which the transition to the problematic of the "government of self and others" would begin.

The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill: On Liberty, the Subjection of Women and Utilitarianism (Modern Library Classics)

John Stuart Mill

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The great defender of individual liberty 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I read this book for a graduate class in Philosophy. Dr. Dale Miller who was the editor for this book was my professor. He is excellent and an expert on J. S. Mill. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-73, worked for the East India Co. helped run Colonial India from England. Minister of Parliament 1865-68 he served one term. Maiden speech was a disaster his second was great success. He was first MP to propose that women should be given the vote on equal footing with the men who could vote. He got 1/3 support, England gives franchise to women after U.S. He was a great Feminist, his essay "Subjection of Women" is written with great passion and prose. It was a brave position for him to take he was ridiculed for it. He favored democracy, and letting more men from lower classes the right to vote, but believed that people that are more educated should have more votes then less educated because they would make better decisions about what government should do. He would have wanted to extend education to the masses, so that all may have gotten 2-3 votes and so on. He didn't think it should be extended to where a small elite could carry the day on votes. The idea was that if the working class, and middle class, where divided on an issue, the people with more intelligence would have the power to tip the balance. Mill thought that people with more education would probably not only be better able to make political decisions, especially in terms of intellectually being able to see what would be best for the government to do, but that they would also be more concerned about the common good publicly then people in general. He was intensely educated by his father James. John could read Greek, and Latin at 6 yrs.; his Dad tutored him at home. Dad thought environment was everything. He was treated like an adult, never played games with kids; he had a very cerebral upbringing. He had a period of depression in his twenties, it changed his philosophy, and he recognized the importance of developing feelings along with the intellect, this is something that he stressed in his work. He read poetry to get out of depression; he became devoted to poetry and became a romantic. He fell in love with a married woman Harriet Taylor, was a platonic relationship, after her husband's death they married 3 years later and probably never consummated the marriage maybe due to Harriet having syphilis. His dedication to "On Liberty" is to her, very devoted to each other. Both buried together in Avignon France where they used to vacation.

Mill as a moral theorist subscribed to a theory we call Utilitarianism. It means---In some way morality is about the maximization of happiness. Whether actions are right or wrong depends on how happiness can be most effectively maximized. I say in some way, because there are allot of different kinds of Utilitarians. Allot of different ways of saying exactly how it is the maximization of happiness comes into morality. Therefore, happiness is clearly an important idea for Utilitarians. Mill has a hedonistic view of happiness, he thinks that happiness can be defined in terms of "pleasure in the absence of pain." What is distinctive about Mill in this area is that he believes that some kinds of pleasure are better than others are, and add more to a person's happiness than other kinds of pleasures. He believes in what he calls, "higher quality pleasures." These are pleasures, he says, that we get from the exercise of faculties that only human beings happen to have. So the intellect, imagination, the moral feelings, these are the sources of higher quality pleasures people use. His view seems to be that a certain quantity of intellectual pleasure just adds more to your happiness, and a given quantity of some lower pleasure like a kind we would share with the animals such as sensation, taste, sexual pleasure, etc. His "higher quality pleasures" in a way echo Aristotle's ethics. The idea of those things that make us distinctly human that are the real key to our happiness, that is in Mill also. It is not as limited to reason and intellect as Aristotle thinks. Mill recognizes the importance of the appreciation of beauty, aesthetic pleasure, and moral pleasure. He frankly owes a debt to Aristotle that he never properly acknowledges, never gives him proper credit.

"On Liberty" is Mill's is his most widely read and enduring work. It is an indispensable essay on political thought, which strenuously argues for individual liberty. He is defending what he calls the "liberty principle." It is a principle that guarantees individuals quite a bit of personal freedom. "That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." These quoted sentences in John Stuart Mill's book, "On Liberty," embody the crux of his argument; that the power of the state must intrude as little as possible on the liberty of its citizenry. In essence, Mill was against using the power of the state through its lawmaking apparatus to compel citizens to conduct themselves in ways that society deems moral or appropriate. Mill thought that people had not only a right, but also a duty to develop their intellectual faculties, which is indispensable to maximize their happiness. He believed that society improved for all its citizens when they where left unfettered to the maximum extent possible, allowing them to use their imagination and intellect to improve themselves. Mill postulates a theory that societies usually institute laws based primarily on "personal preference" of its citizenry instead of established principles. This lack of clarity of opinion often leads to the government frequently interfering in the lives of its citizens unnecessarily. For Mill, there are very few times when the state can infringe on the personal liberty of others. Firstly, the state has the right to promulgate laws that prevent a person's actions from harming others. Secondly, the state must protect those citizens who are not mature enough to protect themselves, such as children. Thirdly, he exempts, "... backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage." In Mill's view, immature societies need a benevolent leader to rule them until they have developed to a point where they, "... have attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion ..." Mill said this third exemption did not apply to any of the countries in Europe. Mill believed that forced morality by the state on its citizen's liberties was destructive to their inward development, and could even lead to a violent reaction by them against the government.


There are different parts of his defense of this, different arguments that he gives. He has a long chapter on freedom of speech and press. He has some very specific reasons why he thinks those freedoms are important. Always in the background for Mill is the idea of development, and making it possible for more people to enjoy these higher quality pleasures. How do we help people develop their distinctly human faculties, in ways that will help them enjoy their higher quality pleasures? Because for him that is the way, we maximize the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed in the world, and that is the object of morality as far as he is concerned. Utilitarianists believe that maximizing happiness is ultimately, what morality is all about. That does not mean maximizing your own happiness that means maximizing the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed, not only by yourself but also by everybody else as well.

Roger Kimball, in his book "Experiments Against Reality" wrote, "On Liberty" was published in 1859, coincidentally the same year as "On the Origin of Species." Darwin's book has been credited--and blamed--for all manner of moral and religious mischief. But in the long run "On Liberty" may have effected an even greater revolution in sentiment.

Editorial Review:

The writings of John Stuart Mill have become the cornerstone of political liberalism. Collected for the first time in this volume are Mill’s three seminal and most widely read works: On Liberty, The Subjection of Women, and Utilitarianism. A brilliant defense of individual rights versus the power of the state, On Liberty is essential reading for anyone interested in political thought and theory. As Bertrand Russell reflected, “On Liberty remains a classic . . . the present world would be better than it is, if [Mill’s] principles were more respected.”

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition includes newly commissioned endnotes and commentary by Dale E. Miller, and an index.

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Hannah Arendt

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Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Unreadable 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I am sure that there are some important points made in this book, but its turgid prose is so difficult to understand, it is not worth the effort. It takes its place on my bookshelf next to Being and Nothingness. Next time you see it on someone's bookshelf, ask them to summarize it, or discuss what they thought of it. You will probably get a few uncomfortable looks.

Arendt's Opus Magnum 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Origins, an incredibly detailed analysis of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, shows Arendt's versatility in political thought. I have yet to see a political philosopher/thinker publish a work with this much depth to it, and I think it will be a long time before we see anything like it.

Many of the reviews here have done better justice to her legacy, so I will just say that if you are thinking twice about pursuing this work because of it's length, think three times.

Editorial Review:

Generally regarded as the definitive work on totalitarianism, this book is an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political movements. Arendt was one of the first to recognize that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were two sides of the same coin rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. "With the Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt emerges as the most original and profound-therefore the most valuable-political theoretician of our times" (New Leader). Index.

The Communist Manifesto and Other Revolutionary Writings: Marx, Marat, Paine, Mao Tse-Tung, Gandhi and Others (Dover Thrift Editions)

Bob Blaisdell, Marx, Gandhi

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Absurd? I don't think so... 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The reviewer "Scott" argues that the Communist Manifesto is "degrading", and I'd like to know exactly "for whom/what"? Sounds like Scott is either a boss who'd like to see the revival of the "Golden Age of Capitalism" (the Industrial Revolution, which included sub-living wages, child labor, forced overtime, 12-15 hour days, no worker's rights, etc.). Or, more likely, he has never read the Communist Manifesto, which contains within it nothing that is degrading for the working and poor classes, but is in fact a dignifying and uplifting rally-cry for the working class.

Only a person that has never read the Communist Manifesto, or a person belonging to the priveleged class, could argue, honestly, that the Manifesto was degrading. Scott, you should be ashamed.

(By the way, Marx was not the rabid anti-capitalist, pro-Statist, everyone thinks he was - he was in fact the rightful heir to the Paine, Smith, Mill, etc. He followed their arguments to their logical conclusions, and he could not reject history and what capitalism had become by his time. As had been said about communism time and time again, capitalism "is a great idea but doesn't work" - not in the long run, not for the working class. Rather, capitalism had went from liberating people in the 17th and 18th centuries to enslaving them in the 19th and 20th - and 21st - centuries. Marx, like the "founding fathers" of America, had realised that CERTAINLY man needs land/resources to be free, but unlike the founding fathers he was around to see that monopolies were an inevitability in capitalism, and that the population would grow too large for there to be enough land and resources to go around without SHARING. "Private property" had become, by this time, a means of forcing latecomers into service in exchange for table scraps. And of course, the capitalists had abandoned their belief in liberty and human welfare and had become dependent upon the State to protect their hordes of unused/horded wealth and property. Forget the fact that they didn't need all the land and resources they "owned legally", and forget the fact that there were people that DID need it bud didn't have it, and forget the fact that the choice between starvation and work is NOT "freedom" but coercion - forget all this. What became important for the capitalists long before socialism, anarchism, and communism became attractive alternatives to capitalism was not people, but profit. Marx simply was more of a libertarian than the capitalists of his day.)

Editorial Review:

Spanning 3 centuries, this works include such milestone documents as the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789), and The Communist Manifesto (1848). Also included are writings by the Russian revolutionaries Lenin and Trotsky, Marat and Danton of the French Revolution, Rousseau, Gandhi, Mao, other leading figures in revolutionary thought.

The Limits of Power (American Empire Project)

Andrew Bacevich, Eric Conger

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Editorial Review:

The Limits of Power identifies a profound triple crisis facing America: the economy, in remarkable disarray, can no longer be fixed by relying on expansion abroad; the government, transformed by an imperial presidency, is a democracy in form only; U.S. involvement in endless wars, driven by a deep infatuation with military power, has been a catastrophe for the body politic. These pressing problems threaten all of us, Republicans and Democrats. If the nation is to solve its predicament, it will need the revival of a distinctly American approach: the neglected tradition of realism.

Andrew J. Bacevich, uniquely respected across the political spectrum, offers a historical perspective on the illusions that have governed American policy since 1945. The realism he proposes includes respect for power and its limits; sensitivity to unintended consequences; aversion to claims of exceptionalism; skepticism of easy solutions, especially those involving force; and a conviction that the books will have to balance. Only a return to such principles, Bacevich argues, can provide common ground for fixing America’s urgent problems before the damage becomes irreparable.