Synopses & Reviews
A History of Western Political Thought is an energetic and lucid account of the most important political thinkers and the enduring themes of the last two and a half millennia. Written with students of the history of political thought in mind, the book:
* traces the development of political thought from Ancient Greece to the late twentieth century
* focuses on individual thinkers and texts
* includes 40 biographies of key political thinkers
* offers original views of theorists and highlights those which may have been unjustly neglected
* develops the wider themes of political thought and the relations between thinkers over time.
Synopsis
A History of Western Political Thought is an energetic, engaging and lucid account of the most important political thinkers and enduring political themes of the last two and a half millennia. John McClelland traces the development and consolidation of a tradition of Western political thought from Ancient Greece to the development of the modern state, the American Enlightenment, and the rise of Liberalism. He discusses how a tradition beginning before Socrates might be said to have played itself out in the second half of the twentieth century.
McClelland's aim is to tell a complete story: his definition of politics encompasses both power wielded from above and power threatened from below; and the sustained pursuit of this theme leads him to present an original and often controversial view of the theorists of the recieved canon and to add some writers to that canon whom he feels have been unjustly neglected.