"Discourses on Livy", which was first published posthumously in 1531, is Niccolo Machiavelli's analysis of the first ten books of Livy's monumental work of Roman History, which details the expansion of Rome through the end of the Third Samnite War in 293 BC. Machiavelli believed that by examining the exemplary greatness in Roman history, practical lessons could be applied to the politics of the present day. The Italian renaissance was causing people...

The classic handbook of statecraft written by an Italian nobleman recommends guile and craftiness to attain and maintain political power.

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...

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...

"The Public and Its Problems" by John Dewey is a seminal work in political philosophy and social theory that explores the nature of democracy, the challenges it faces, and the role of the public in addressing societal problems. In this thought-provoking book, Dewey examines the relationship between democracy, individualism, and the collective responsibility of the public. Dewey begins by critiquing the traditional notion of the public as a mere aggregation...

"Landauer is the most important agitator of the radical and revolutionary movement in the entire country." This is how Gustav Landauer is described in a German police file from 1893. Twenty-six years later, Landauer would die at the hands of reactionary soldiers who overthrew the Bavarian Council Republic, a three-week attempt to realize libertarian socialism amidst the turmoil of post-World War I Germany. It was the last chapter in the life of an...

The presidential election of 1844 was one of the two or three most momentous elections in American history. Had Henry Clay won instead of James K. Polk, we'd be living in a very different country today. Polk's victory cemented the westward expansion that brought Texas, California, and Oregon into the union. It also took place amid religious turmoil that included anti-Mormon and anti-Catholic violence, and the "Great Disappointment," in which thousands...

A history of the world's first democracy from its beginnings in Athens circa fifth century B.C. to its downfall 200 years later. The first democracy, established in ancient Greece more than 2,500 years ago, has served as the foundation for every democratic system of government instituted down the centuries. In this lively history, author Thomas N. Mitchell tells the full and remarkable story of how a radical new political order was born out of the...

La autoridad política no constituye si no un aspecto del control social y para comprender sus peculiaridades es preciso distinguirla de los demás aspectos de aquél. En control puede considerarse desde dos puntos de vista: primero desde la persona que lo ejerce y segunda, el de la persona sometida a el. Parece más conveniente adoptar el último de esos puntos de vista y estudiar los tipos de control segun el modo como afectan al sentido de...

"From the prophetic author of the now-classic What's the Matter with Kansas? and Listen, Liberal, an eye-opening account of populism, the most important--and misunderstood--movement of our time. Rarely does a work of history contain startling implications for the present, but in The People, No Thomas Frank pulls off that explosive effect by showing us that everything we think we know about populism is wrong. Today 'populism' is seen as a frightening...