A lucid introduction to the significant European political theories of the last five hundred years shows that the study of political ideas of the past is a step toward understanding the human situation and the complex of ideas, motives, feelings, and passions which have shaped the world in which we live. Evoking the contributions and the times of such thinkers as Machiavelli, Luthor, Hobbes, Locke, Paine, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Burke, Hegel, Mill, and Marx, thirteen historians, political scientists and philosophers explore the creation of political sovereignty, the relationship between governments and the governed, the Nation-state, liberal-democracy, communism, and other fundamental political concepts.
A lucid introduction to the significant European political theories of the last five hundred years shows that the study of political ideas of the past is a step toward understanding the human situation and the complex of ideas, motives, feelings, and passions which have shaped the world in which we live. Evoking the contributions and the times of such thinkers as Machiavelli, Luthor, Hobbes, Locke, Paine, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Burke, Hegel, Mill, and Marx, thirteen historians, political scientists and philosophers explore the creation of political sovereignty, the relationship between governments and the governed, the Nation-state, liberal-democracy, communism, and other fundamental political concepts.