Politics

Arendt's major analysis of antisemitism, imperialism, and the emergence of modern totalitarian regimes, tracing how Nazism and Stalinism became distinct forms of political domination.

The short political pamphlet that turned diffuse colonial frustration into a direct argument for American independence, republican government, and a clean break from monarchy.

A collection of 85 essays written under the pseudonym Publius, urging the ratification of the United States Constitution. Each paper addresses a different aspect of republican government — the dangers of faction, the separation of powers, the structure of the judiciary. The most sustained and sophisticated argument for a specific form of government in the history of political thought.

Aristotle examines the constitutions of 158 city-states to develop a comprehensive theory of government. His central question — what kind of constitution produces a good life for its citizens? — has grounded every serious discussion of political philosophy since. The companion to the Nicomachean Ethics: if the Ethics asks how an individual should live, the Politics asks how we should live together.

Popper's wartime defence of liberal democracy against the totalitarian philosophies he traced to Plato, Hegel, and Marx. The most rigorous philosophical argument for open institutions ever written.

The political pamphlet commissioned by the Communist League, outlining historical materialism and calling for proletarian revolution.

Rousseau's theory of popular sovereignty and the general will. The intellectual precursor to the French Revolution.

Mill's defence of individual freedom against social and governmental tyranny. The foundational text of classical liberalism.

Locke's argument for natural rights, government by consent, and the right of revolution. The intellectual foundation of liberal democracy.

Hobbes' argument for a powerful sovereign to prevent the war of all against all. The founding text of social contract theory.

After traveling through the United States for nine months in 1831, the 26-year-old Frenchman Tocqueville produced what may be the most prescient book ever written about America. He analyzed democracy not just as a political system but as a social condition, predicting with astonishing accuracy its tendencies: the tyranny of the majority, the flattening of distinction, the restless materialism, and the vulnerability to a soft despotism.