Classic Political Philosophy for the Modern Man

‘Just as in the parable of the boiling frog who does not perceive the gradual increase in the temperature of the water and is boiled alive, so we have by steady increments lost much of our liberty without realizing it. The works in this book cannot give that back; what they can do is to raise our consciousness of the many alternative paths we could have taken—and perhaps, if we have nerve enough, still can take.’

Classic Political Philosophy for the Modern Man serves three purposes: it provides an introduction to the greatest political philosophers of the Western tradition; it allows these profound thinkers to speak to the assumptions and prejudices of our own era on topics ranging from democracy and human rights to equalism and speech laws; and it brings the most enduringly relevant of their works alive again for the modern reader.

Presenting the very best of Western political philosophy, Classic Political Philosophy for the Modern Man introduces and includes selections from:

• Plato, Republic
• Aristotle, Politics
• Machiavelli, The Prince and Discourses
• Hobbes, Leviathan
• Locke, Second Treatise of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration
• Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract
• Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Bentham, Anarchical Fallacies
• Tocqueville, Democracy in America
• Bastiat, The Law
• Mill, On Liberty
• Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic

There is no better starting point for those who seek a genuinely fresh and insightful view on the major questions of our political existence.