Description
Book SynopsisFocuses on modern constitutionalism with selections from Hume, Montesquieu, the Federalist, and Constant. This title features the author's translation of Constant's 1819 essay "On Ancient and Modern Liberty". It also includes selections from Machiavelli's "Discourses on Livy" and a Hegel selection.
Trade ReviewA superbly edited collection--absolutely the best of its kind.--Ian Shapiro, Yale University
This book includes a wide and balanced selection of many of the more important texts of modern political thought. To its great credit, it provides pertinent excerpts from frequently neglected authors, such as Calvin and Hume, which it nicely juxtaposes with writings by more well-read authors such as Hobbes and Locke. The introductions to each section help to situate the writers in their historical and intellectual context and to alert students to some of the central issues that arise in the texts. An economical and useful approach to modern political thought.--Dan Engster, University of Chicago
Modern Political Thought might well replace current texts for undergraduate modern political theory and political philosophy classes. In it, primary sources are plentiful and well represented. Wootton's introductions to particular thinkers, as well as to epochs and relations among their thinkers, are absolutely first rate: clear, concise, accessible to undergraduates yet stimulating to the professional.--Peter Schouls, Massey University
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Machiavelli and the Renaissance; Hobbes, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution; John Locke, David Hume, and the Right of Revolution; Rousseau, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Revolution; Constitutionalism and the Redefinition of Liberty; J S Mill: Feminism and the Pursuit of Happiness; Marx and Marxism; Nietzsche For and Against.
