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A History of Political Thought: 1789 to the Present

ISBN: 978-0-745-63102-8

September 2005

Polity

224 pages

Description
Bruce Haddock's lucid and original textbook combines historical and theoretical analysis, setting political thought in the context of the emerging institutional, cultural and economic framework of the modern world. From the colossal impact of the French and American revolutions, through reaction and constitutional consolidation, the book traces the contrasting criteria invoked to justify particular forms of political order from 1789 to the present day. Its chapters are organized around key themes such as liberty, welfare, the nation-state and totalitarianism, focusing on the response of theorists to fundamental ideological and political controversies. Major thinkers covered include Kant, Burke, Hegel, Tocqueville, Marx, Mill, Mazzini, Lenin, Schmitt, Hayek, Oakeshott and Rawls.


The book also confronts challenging questions about the status of moral and political principles. Cultural and moral controversy is characteristic of our everyday experience. In recent decades, however, the foundations of political and ethical theory have been widely questioned. Haddock highlights the emergence of a dilemma that faces all citizens: how we make judgements of value from embedded positions in social and cultural communities.


A History of Political Thought: 1789 to the Present will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, history and philosophy.

About the Author
Bruce Haddock is Professor of Modern European Social and Political Thought at Cardiff University.
Features

  • A major new textbook introducing undergraduate students to the key themes and thinkers in the history of political thought from 1789 to the present day.

  • Adopts a thematic approach to situate developments in political thinking in historical context.

  • Divided into 10 chapters which focus on core topics such as revolution, reaction, the Constitutional State, liberty, welfare and totalitarianism.

  • Lucidly written by a leading academic in the field, this book will form part of a trilogy of books on the history of political thought from Polity.