Free eBooks Politics And Vision: Continuity And Innovation In Western Political Thought (Princeton Classics) Available To Downloads

                
              
Free eBooks 
Politics And Vision: Continuity And Innovation In Western Political Thought (Princeton Classics) Available To Downloads
Politics and Vision is a landmark work by one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century. This is a significantly expanded edition of one of the greatest works of modern political theory. Sheldon Wolin's Politics and Vision inspired and instructed two generations of political theorists after its appearance in 1960. Substantially expanded for republication in 2004, it is both a sweeping survey of Western political thought and a powerful account of contemporary predicaments of power and democracy. In lucid and compelling prose, Sheldon Wolin offers original, subtle, and often surprising interpretations of political theorists from Plato to Rawls. Situating them historically while sounding their depths, he critically engages their diverse accounts of politics, theory, power, justice, citizenship, and institutions. The new chapters, which show how thinkers have grappled with the immense possibilities and dangers of modern power, are themselves a major theoretical statement. They culminate in Wolin's remarkable argument that the United States has invented a new political form, "inverted totalitarianism," in which economic rather than political power is dangerously dominant. In this expanded edition, the book that helped to define political theory in the late twentieth century should energize, enlighten, and provoke generations of scholars to come.  Wolin originally wrote Politics and Vision to challenge the idea that political analysis should consist simply of the neutral observation of objective reality. He argues that political thinkers must also rely on creative vision. Wolin shows that great theorists have been driven to shape politics to some vision of the Good that lies outside the existing political order. As he tells it, the history of theory is thus, in part, the story of changing assumptions about the Good.  Acclaimed as a tour de force when it was first published, and a major scholarly event when the expanded edition appeared, Politics and Vision will instruct, inspire, and provoke for generations to come.
Series: Princeton Classics
Paperback: 792 pages
Publisher: Princeton University Press; Expanded edition (September 6, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0691174059
ISBN-13: 978-0691174051
Product Dimensions:  5.4 x 2.1 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:  4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #69,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)   #114 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Ideologies & Doctrines > Democracy   #506 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science > History & Theory   #20022 in Books > Reference
This is an exemplary work that engages the entire history of political thought in the Western tradition. Wolin has added four significant chapters to the original 1960 book and one addresses postmodernism looking at the Nietzschean background to our epoch. For any one doing serious scholarly work in political thoery, philosophy, critical theory, history this book is a necessary possession. For the rest, probably the best general work of Western political thought available.
This book is so rich and it is about so many things that it is difficult to praise in a brief blurb, but suffice it to say that it presents the development of political thinking since Plato to Roman political thought in the age of the Empire to the rise of the Catholic Church to the Reformation, to the reawakening of Classical theory in Machiavelli and onward to the development of modern ideas of the state, of order and security, representation of the polity, democracy, and authoritarianism. Each chapter is written like an individual essay, but with a depth unmatched my most other books on the subject. Perhaps Q. Skinner's development of western political thought is an approximation.This book is not just a brief summary of the major figures and ideas; it is a discursis of THE tradition, THE language, THE development of theories AND praxis of human beings applying reason to organize themselves into groups for better protection against scarcity and death. Sexy, hmm?!It would be interesting to read an equivalent book on the Eastern political tradition, as China is not covered here.But otherwise, I cannot praise this book more highly. It is one to reread every year or so. When you have some free time that is. And after you reread Hamlet. Or maybe you're better off rereading Robinson Crusoe. Same question, different answer, anyhow.
Of course, this is perhaps the foremost book on political theory of the last fifty years - basically required reading for anyone with claims to being a political philosopher or interpreter. It is an examination of the nature of political thinking and its connectedness and importance with regard to economics, religion, and the broader society from the time of Plato to the Bush II administration.This expanded version of the book consists of seventeen somewhat independent chapters devoted to leading political thinkers, such as Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Marx, Nietzsche, and to such concepts as liberalism, community, democracy, and totalitarianism. Given the nature of the subjects the reading is slow going, though quite informative. There does seem to be a certain amount of needless repetition, even within chapters, and the overall affect is more one of fragmentation than of a unifying thread. For most, undoubtedly multiple readings would be required for full assimilation.There will be no attempt here to offer any sort of critique of the substance of the book - a large project to be sure. There is an interesting chapter that dissects the political writings of John Rawls, the leading political theorist of the late twentieth century. The impact of Superpower and corporate dominance on the possibilities for democratic action in the current era is explored. It is clear that the notion of what is political is ever-changing and is not without its complexities.
This eminently readable work can be picked up and put down as time permits--no small virtue in a busy time, and essential for a proper education in political ideas that still very much shape our world. Without making many explicit comparisons or contrasts, Wolin somehow manages to suggest numerous points of intersection between our political dilemmas today and those that beset people thousands of years ago. This is an erudite, witty, accessible book. It should be required reading for all Americans--especially for those of us who like to shoot our mouths off about liberals, conservatives, and other such oddities in the common bestiary. I wouldn't let my copy go for five times what I paid for it.
I studied with Sheldon Wolin at Berkeley (before he went on to Princeton). This was a Golden Age at Berkeley for political theory: Norman Jacobson, Hannah Pitkin, Michael Rogin. A time when Political Science and Political Theory were at war.....something of a useless war we now know. Still, this is an extraordinary volume, a broad survey that has depth and insight. Wolin was a class act and a classic even in 1970. Brilliant and wonderful.....as were each of his collegues.
After having read only 10-percent -- Plato, Aristotle and the Romans on political theory and practice -- I find myself entranced by Sheldon Wolin's depth and breadth of understanding. Informative, insightful and inspiring.
I'm halfway through this enchanting walk through and analysis of the history of political theory. I thought it would be dry, but I can't put it down. It is casting so much of today's politics in a much more understandable light. Highly recommended.
Easily one for the finest political intellectuals of the last half of the twentieth Century. "Inverted Totalitarianism" is the only concept that pulls all of our current morass into anything like something coherent.
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