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1) The Republic
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"The Republic is Plato's masterwork. It was written 2,400 years ago and remains one of the most widely read books in the world, famous for both the richness of its ideas and the virtuosity of its writing. Presented as a dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and various interlocutors, it is an exhortation to study philosophy, inviting its readers to reflect on the choices we must make if we are to live the best life available to us. This complex,...
2) Common sense
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In 1775, the American colonies were a hotbed of political discord. Many of the British policies, specifically taxes, had caused American colonial leaders to consider the unthinkable: declaring independence from the British Empire and its King George. One such leader, Thomas Jefferson, wrote Common Sense: a pamphlet that explained the advantages of immediate and complete independence. In 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, Common...
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Maurizio Viroli is professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University, professor of government at the University of Texas, Austin, and professor of political communication at the University of Italian Switzerland in Lugano. His many books include Niccolò's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli (Hill & Wang) and How to Choose a Leader: Machiavelli's Advice to Citizens (Princeton).
A collection of insightful and revealing quotations on a wide range...
4) The politics
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Similar to Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores another facet of good living by outlining the best governing practices that benefit the majority, and not the minority. In The Politics, he defines various institutions and how they should operate within an established system.
The Politics provides an analysis of contemporary government as it relates to all people. Aristotle discusses the positive and negative qualities of authority and how they affect...
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The landmark political treatise that refuted the so-called divine right of kings and established the principles of representative government "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." With these stirring words, Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins The Social Contract-the first shot in a battle of ideas that would set the stage for the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. In the feverish days of the Enlightenment, Rousseau...
6) Leviathan
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""During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre." Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that man's essential nature is competitive and selfish, Hobbes formulates the case for a powerful sovereign -- or "Leviathan" -- to enforce peace and the law, substituting security for the...
7) The Atlantic
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A literary and cultural commentary magazine that covers news, politics, culture, technology, health, etc.
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English Enlightenment philosopher John Locke has been called the "Father of Liberalism". Following in the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, he is one of the first British empiricists, which emphasizes the role of empirical evidence in the formation of ideas. His work would greatly influence other prominent political and literary figures including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the founding fathers of the United States of America. Contained here...
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As the author of “The Conservative Mind” and other seminal books, Russell Kirk is usually thought of as one of the American conservative political movement's most important progenitors. But as this collection demonstrates, Kirk was perhaps at his best as an essayist. This volume also confirms that Kirk's was principally a literary and historical conservatism that refused to fit the irreducible complexity of human experience to the requirements...
10) The prince
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Need to seize a country? Have enemies you must destroy? In this handbook for despots and tyrants, the Renaissance statesman Machiavelli sets forth how to accomplish this and more, while avoiding the awkwardness of becoming generally hated and despised. "Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be...
11) Plato's republic
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Plato's most famous work and one of the most important books ever written on the subject of philosophy and political theory, "The Republic" is a fictional dialogue between Socrates and other various Athenians and foreigners which examines the meaning of justice. It is primarily from the writings of Plato that Socrates's ideas are passed down to us. Written around 380 BC, the work is an important contribution to the age old question of how to best...
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In January 1776, Thomas Paine published a pamphlet called Common Sense, which electrified the American colonies. Paine demanded freedom from Britain when even fervent patriots were revolting only against excessive taxation. His daring prose spurred passage of the Declaration of Independence. The Crisis, written when Paine was a soldier during the Continental Army's bleakest days, begins with the world-famous line "These are the times that try men's...
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"A leading legal scholar addresses the most important constitutional controversies of the past two decades and illuminates the Constitution's spirit and ongoing relevance When the stories that lead our daily news involve momentous constitutional questions, present-minded journalists and busy citizens cannot always see the stakes clearly. In The Constitution Today, Akhil Reed Amar, America's preeminent constitutional scholar, considers the biggest...
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This book develops new ways of thinking beyond the nation as a form of political community by seeking to transcend ethnonational categories of 'us' and 'them'. Drawing on scholarship and cases spanning Pacific Asia and Europe, it steps outside assumptions linking nation to state. Accessible yet theoretically rich, it explores how to think about nationhood beyond narrow binaries and even broader cosmopolitan ideals. Using cutting-edge critical research,...
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Originally published in 1896, "Robert's Rules of Order," remains to this day the manual of choice when it comes to conducting orderly productive proceedings. As General Henry M. Robert describes in his preface to the work, "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish in the best possible manner the work for which it was designed. To do this it is necessary to restrain the individual somewhat, as the right of an individual,...
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One of the half dozen most important books ever written about the American Revolution.--New York Times Book Review "During the nearly two decades since its publication, this book has set the pace, furnished benchmarks, and afforded targets for many subsequent studies. If ever a work of history merited the appellation 'modern classic,' this is surely one.--William and Mary Quarterly"{A} brilliant and sweeping interpretation of political culture in...
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"The idea that American conservatism is identical to "classical" liberalism--widely held since the 1960s--is seriously mistaken. The award-winning political theorist Yoram Hazony argues that the best hope for Western democracy is a return to the empiricist, religious, and nationalist traditions of America and Britain--the conservative traditions that brought greatness to the English-speaking nations and became the model for national freedom for the...
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"The link between the occult and politics is as old as politics itself. In ancient Egypt and China, magi translated the messages of the gods into the edicts of the land." "These days that link has become obscure, limited mostly to studies on the "dark side" of fascism. But countercultural critic Gary Lachman shows there is a "progressive," democratic occult politics as well. Focusing on notions of "hidden superiors" and the "retreat from the modern...
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Ten years after sparks first flew between them in a passionate kiss, a recently divorced woman and a college professor meet in another classroom — but is it too late to explore what could have been?After leaving her disastrous marriage behind, Shelley Browning goes back to college to get her degree and comes face to face with an unforgettable man from her past. Ten years ago, when she was Grant Chapman's student, they shared a single,...
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An expert on American authoritarianism offers a searing rebuke to the "exceptional" narrative that dominates our understanding of US history. In 12 lessons, On Fascism exposes the divisive rhetoric, strongman tactics, violent othering, and mainstream attitudes that continue to through American history and compete with our egalitarian, democratic aspirations.