History of the State Books - Page 5

Hobhouse: Liberalism and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

L. T. Hobhouse

Amazon Price: $75.00 List Price: $75.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $20.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Constitutions
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Reference
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A message as powerful today as when it was written 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Hobhouse loses out on two fronts. To the academic political philosopher he is not to be taken seriously because 'Liberalism' is an insignificant book written for a mass audience. For others he was writing in a different age with different problems, so how can he be relevant. To deal firstly with the readibility of 'Liberalism', it is a distillation of his thoughts in an accessible format - GREAT! If you want more; read some more of his books, simple as that. This a wonderful book that gets under your skin planting ideas that itch away forever more. To style Hobhouse a father of modern liberalism is to diminish his worth and miss the point. Reading Hobhouse is not a second best to reading Rawls. He is more coherent, better argued, and simply smarter and more on the ball than all the so called liberals ever since (maybe that's a bit strong, but you see what I'm getting at). It's very simple really; what we want is maximum individual freedom, yet we all live in a society. The only way we can maximize our freedom as individuals is within that society, and in order for it to survive we must tolerate limits on those individual freedoms. Hmm; sounds a lot better the way he puts it! If you want your perceptions challenged, this is an excellent place to start.

Editorial Review:

L.T. Hobhouse was the most sophisticated intellectual exponent of liberal social reform in the early years of the twentieth century. This edition of his classic Liberalism, which includes a number of his other contemporaneous writings, will be of interest to a broad range of students and scholars in politics and the history of political thought.

Nationalism and the State

John Breuilly

Amazon Price: $35.10 List Price: $39.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $13.44

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

Since its publication this important study has become established as a central work on the vast and contested subject of modern nationalism. Placing historical evidence within a general theoretical framework, John Breuilly argues that nationalism should be understood as a form of politics that arises in opposition to the modern state. In this updated and revised edition, he extends his analysis to the most recent developments in central Europe and the former Soviet Union. He also addresses the current debates over the meaning of nationalism and their implications for his position.

Breuilly challenges the conventional view that nationalism emerges from a sense of cultural identity. Rather, he shows how elites, social groups, and foreign governments use nationalist appeals to mobilize popular support against the state. Nationalism, then, is a means of creating a sense of identity. This provocative argument is supported with a wide-ranging analysis of pertinent examples—national opposition in early modern Europe; the unification movement in Germany, Italy, and Poland; separatism under the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires; fascism in Germany, Italy, and Romania; post-war anti-colonialism and the nationalist resurgence following the breakdown of Soviet power.

Still the most comprehensive and systematic historical comparison of nationalist politics, Nationalism and the State is an indispensable book for anyone seeking to understand modern politics.

Nation-Building and Citizenship: Studies of Our Changing Social Order

Reinhard Bendix

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Transaction Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $29.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Constitutions
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> International -> Relations
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Beyond Westphalia?: National Sovereignty and International Intervention

List Price: $59.00 By: The Johns Hopkins University Press Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $73.67

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Law -> International Law -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Worthwhile and Informative 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

International intervention made interesting! I highly recommend this book. It's a page-turner rivaling novels, yet with pragmatic significance and impact. The book covers aspects of intervention ranging from weapons of mass destruction to environmental catastrophe and human rights. When is one nation justified in their interference in another's domestic affairs? Does state sovereignty take precedence, or the global community? This book answers these questions and much more. All aspects are considered, from globalism and globalization to national autonomy. For its thoroughness and superb analysis, I rate this book five stars. Drawbacks? None, unless you're simply not interested in the topic (however, I recommend it even to the skeptic). Kudos to Lyons and Mastanduno for compiling such a masterpiece.

Editorial Review:

Under the Westphalian system of international order, each nation is understood to be sovereign and its borders are seen as inviolate. But with the emergence of worldwide problems and the increasing interdependence of nations, it is clear that what happens (or does not happen) in one country can have seriousrepercussions elsewhere. Beyond Westphalia? brings together a distinguished group of scholars to explore the question of whether recent political changes have shifted the balance between the sovereign rights of states and the authority of the larger international community.

Contributors are Jarat Chopra, Ken Conca, Jack Donnelly, Robert H. Jackson, Stephen D. Krasner, Friedrich Kratochwil, Gene M. Lyons, Michael Mastanduno, Janne E. Nolan, Nicholas Onuf, James N. Rosenau, and Thomas G. Weiss.

The Breakdown of Nations

Leopold Kohr

List Price: $12.95 By: Routledge Kegan & Paul Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $24.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This Book Will Change Your World View 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Kohr calls for peaceful dissolution of nation states into smaller independent entities which can network or confederate as they choose. His book is a bible of the radical decentralist movement and applauded by anarchists, libertarians, greens alike. It's a fascinating read and will make you realize how much you yearn to belong to a real community and not just be an anoymous cipher in a giant nation state. Quote from Kohr, to give you a flavor:          There seems to be only one cause behind all forms of social misery: bigness. Oversimplified as this may seem, we shall find the idea more easily acceptable if we consider that bigness, or oversize, is really much more than just a social problem. It appears to be the one and only problem permeating all creation.Whenever something is wrong, something is too big.  And if the body of a people becomes diseased with the fever of aggression, brutality, collectivism, or massive idiocy, it is not because it has fallen victim to bad leadership or mental derangement. It is because human beings, so charming as individuals or in small aggregations have been welded onto overconcentrated social units. That is when they begin to slide into uncontrollable catastrophe. For social problems, to paraphrase the population doctrine of Thomas Malthus, have the unfortunate tendency to grow at a geometric ratio with the growth of the organism of which they are part, while the ability of man to cope with them, if it can be extended at all, grows only at an arithmetic ratio. Which means that, if a society grows beyond its optimum size, its problems must eventually outrun the growth of those human faculties which are necessary for dealing with them.         Hence it is always bigness, and only bigness, which is the problem of existence. The problem is not to grow but to stop growing; the answer: not union but division.  

Statesman (Hackett Publishing Co.)

Plato

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hackett Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $20.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Foreign Language Fiction -> More Languages -> Greek
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Foreign Language Nonfiction -> More Languages -> Greek
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Constitutions

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Read The Republic instead...too much useless chatter in this one 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Probably best known for The Republic, this is a very similar selection from Plato where he wrestles with the best form of government understanding the obvious restrictions and limitations of mankind. Plato considers the monarchy, or the benevolent rule of one good man, to be the best and most desired form of governance. A democracy, or a rule by the mob, is the least effective and desirable form according to Plato. But, without a biblical worldview in which to frame his understanding, Plato fails to recognize and account for the influence of the fall of man and man's sinful nature. Without an appreciation for divine revelation and the power of the Holy Spirit to regenerate man from his fallen state, Plato also fails to recognize the power and influence that God's Word and the presence of the Holy Spirit can have on a man's thoughts and life. While Plato limits mankind by some unknown formula so that only a few may rise to political knowledge, he finds it impossible to know whether a ruler will be a tyrant or a statesman. And while laws may confine and restrain evil, they can also hamper and restrict good. Plato's world is dominated by an appreciation for the state, but his understanding and appreciation for mankind or humanity demonstrates his shortsightedness in his approach to finding true statesmen. True statesmen are not products of their culture; in contrast they are generally those who cut against the prevailing grain of society. True statesmen have an internal moral compass pointed toward absolute truth that guides and directs even in the midst of societal blindness and confusion. Plato desires to produces these men, but his formula is lacking and deficient. The Statesman is a difficult read with mostly conversations that seem to run tangent to the real issue at hand.

Editorial Review:

A model of accuracy and fluency, Christopher Rowe's translation of Statesman-as modified for publication in Plato, Complete Works (Hackett, 1997)-is now available in a student edition, with a brief introduction, notes, and a select bibliography.

The Riddle of the Modern World: Of Liberty, Wealth and Equality

Alan Macfarlane

Amazon Price: $119.95 List Price: $119.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Palgrave Macmillan Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $11.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> 20th Century
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Love it! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Fantastic book! MacFarlane examines the riddle of why mankind has done so well over the last 300 years, and what prevented these advancements from occuring earlier in our history. He uses the work of four "philosophers"; Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Ernest Geller to throw light on the role that liberty, wealth, and democracy have played. The book is broken down into four sections. Each section starts with the life and times of the philosopher in question. Then their ideas and discoveries about the world around them are examined in detail. Each one contributes to the "solution" to the "riddle". I have been reading a lot of Hayek lately, and many of the ideas he refers to in passing in his work are laid out much more throughly here. If you enjoy history, and are particularly interested in the development of liberty and understanding how individual liberty leads to wealth and better conditions for all, you should buy this book. Also, if you are interested in anyone of the four philosophers mentioned above, you'll be treated to a clear overview of their life and work in the context of the book's subject. It's expensive, but worth it. Buy it before it goes out of print again!

Editorial Review:

What conditions the chances of liberty, wealth, and equality at the start of the third Christian millennium? Why did human civilizations develop so slowly for thousands of years, and then transform themselves during the last three hundred? This study of four great thinkers who lived between 1689 and 1995--Montesquieu, Adam Smith, De Tocqueville, and Ernest Gellner--weaves their lives and works together and through their own words shows how they approached the question of the nature of humanity, our past and our future.

From Warfare State to Welfare State: World War I, Compensatory State-Building, and the Limits of the Modern Order

Marc Allen Eisner

Amazon Price: $82.00 List Price: $82.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Pennsylvania State University Press Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $82.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Military -> World War I
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Poverty -> Social Services & Welfare
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Constitutions

Editorial Review:

When American history is divided into discrete eras, the New Deal stands, along with the Civil War, as one of those distinctive events that forever change the trajectory of the nation's development. The story of the New Deal provides a convenient tool of periodization and a means of interpreting U.S. history and the significance of contemporary political cleavages. Eisner's careful examination of the historical record, however, leads one to the conclusion that there was precious little "new" in the New Deal. If one wishes to find an event that was clearly transformative, the author argues, one must go back to World War I. From Warfare to Welfare State reveals that the federal government lagged far behind the private sector in institutional development in the early twentieth century. In order to cope with the crisis of war, government leaders opted to pursue a path of "compensatory state-building" by seeking out alliances with private-sector associations. But these associations pursued their own interests in a way that imposed severe constraints on the government's autonomy and effectiveness in dealing with the country's problems -- a handicap that accounts for many of the shortcomings of government today.

Machiavelli and Us

Louis Althusser

Amazon Price: $24.31 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Verso Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $24.30

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Constitutions
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern Renaissance
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Althusser's best book, and the best book on Machiavelli 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in Machiavelli, Lenin, Gramsci, or Althusser. Althusser reads Machiavelli's *philosophy* - which, for Althusser, is always the intervention of politics into theory - and specifies what exactly made Machiavelli such a solitary, singular thinker. For those of you who associate Althusser with structuralism, you are in for a big shock. It is here that Althusser develops his 'aleatory materialism' and theory of the conjuncture to the utmost, reading Machiavelli together with Epicurus to delineate Machiavelli's materialist position in philosophy as a thinker of the conjuncture. But he also specifies the necessity for an encounter to endure, and it is here perhaps that a non-structuralist, non-economistic reworking of his theses on the 'last instance' and 'reproduction' in the famous ISAs paper might become possible.

In this book Althusser argues that there is no contradiction between the Prince and the Discourses, that Machiavelli is neither monarchist or republican but instead that he observes power from the perspective of the people, and that Machiavelli's problem is the problem of the constitution of Italy as a national-popular state out of the 'void' of the then-existing mess that was Italy's political landscape. His analysis of Machiavelli's concepts of fortuna and virtu is very important, and too nuanced to summarise here. It's only 100 pages of main text plus endnotes, then another essay 'Machiavelli's Solitude' (an earlier version of which appeared in the journal _Economy and Society_ in 1988) which is 15 pages, and the translator Gregory Elliott provides an worthwhile introduction of 9 pages + notes, where, among other things, Elliott contrasts Althusser's book with that of Skinner for the benefit of English readers.

SO - it's short, but well worth reading. Keep an eye out for the next volume of Althusser writings, due out soon, which contains other important writings from the period 1978-86 (including much more in the way of insights into the development of Althusser's materialism), including 'Marx in his limits', where Althusser develops his theory of the state and provides a strident critique of Gramscian discourse on hegemony and the state that informed the political practice of the Eurocommunists.

Editorial Review:

'We do not publish our own drafts, that is, our own mistakes, but we do sometimes publish other people's,' Louis Althusser once observed of Marx's early writings. Among his own posthumously released drafts, one, at least, is incontestably neither mistake nor out-take: the text of his lecture course on Machiavelli, originally delivered at the cole normale suprieure in 1972, intermittently revised up to the mid-1980s, and carefully prepared for publication after his death in 1990. Though only appearing as an occasional reference in the Marxist philosopher's oeuvre, Machiavelli was an unseen constant presence. For together with Spinoza and Marx, Machiavelli was a veritable Althusserian passion. Machiavelli and Us reveals why, and will be welcomed for the light it sheds on the richly complex thought of its author.

The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher (Studies in the History of Greece and Rome)

W. Jeffrey Tatum

Amazon Price: $55.95 List Price: $70.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: The University of North Carolina Press Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $49.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Publius Clodius Pulcher was a prominent political figure during the last years of the Roman Republic. Born into an illustrious patrician family, his early career was sullied by military failures and especially by the scandal that resulted from his allegedly disguising himself as a woman in order to sneak into a forbidden religious ceremony in the hope of seducing Caesar's wife. Clodius survived this disgrace, however, and emerged as a major political force. He renounced his patrician status and was elected tribune of the people. As tribune, he pursued an ambitious legislative agenda, winning the loyalties of the common people of Rome to such a degree that he was soon able to summon forceful, even violent, demonstrations on his own behalf.

The first modern, comprehensive biography of Clodius, THE PATRICIAN TRIBUNE traces his career from its earliest stages until its end in 52 B.C., when he was murdered by a political rival. Jeffrey Tatum explores Clodius's political successes, as well as the limitations of his popular strategies, within the broader context of Roman political practices. In the process, Tatum illuminates the relationship between the political contests of Rome's elite and the daily struggles of Rome's urban poor.