Synopses & Reviews
In this, his most influential work, legal theorist and political philosopher Carl Schmitt argues that liberalisms basis in individual rights cannot provide a reasonable justification for sacrificing oneself for the state—a critique as cogent today as when it first appeared. George Schwabs introduction to his translation of the 1932 German edition highlights Schmitts intellectual journey through the turbulent period of German history leading to the Hitlerian one-party state. In addition to analysis by Leo Strauss and a foreword by Tracy B. Strong placing Schmitts work into contemporary context, this expanded edition also includes a translation of Schmitts 1929 lecture “The Age of Neutralizations and Depoliticizations,” which the author himself added to the 1932 edition of the book. An essential update on a modern classic, The Concept of the Political, Expanded Edition belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in political theory or philosophy.
Review
“The best introduction to Schmitts thought.”—Mark Lilla,
New York Review of Books Mark Lilla
Review
“Contains much of what is fundamental in Schmitts understanding of the political nature of man and the state, including his contentious definition of the political as the distinction between friend and enemy. . . . Its scholarship is unquestionable.”
Review
“The best introduction to Schmitts thought.”Mark Lilla,
New York Review of Books -- Joseph W. Bendersky - Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory
About the Author
Tracy B. Strong is distinguished professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is a former editor of
Political Theory and the author or editor of many books, including
Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of the Ordinary, and
The Many and the One: Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World.
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century. He is the author of many books, among them
The Political Philosophy of Hobbes,
Natural Right and History,and
Spinoza’s Critique of Religion, all published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Dimensions of the New Debate around Carl Schmitt, by Tracy B. Strong
Translator’s Note to the 1996 Edition and Acknowledgments
Introduction, by George Schwab
Translator’s Note to the 1976 Edition
The Concept of the Political, by Carl Schmitt
“The Age of Neutralizations and Depoliticizations” (1929), by Carl Schmitt
Notes on Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, by Leo Strauss
Index of Names