POLITICAL THEORISTS IN CONTEXT

Focusing on the historical context in which political theorists have developed their thinking, this textbook is an invaluable introduction to students of political thought. The authors address a series of canonical major thinkers in the context of three world – changing epochs – the English, French and industrial revolutions. The theorists’ ideas are assessed with reference to the politics of their time and show how they responded to or interacted with the political events and issues of their day.

Key political thinkers include:

• Milton • Hobbes • The Levellers and the Diggers • Locke • Montesquieu • Jean Jacques Rousseau • Edmund Burke • John Stuart Mill • Karl Marx • Mikhail Bakunin

With key concepts, further reading and revision notes in each chapter this student-friendly text is ideal for students who come to political theory having little existing knowledge of cultural and historical developments.

Chris Sparks, whose previous titles include Montesquieu’s Vision: Uncertainty and Modernity, and Uncertainty and Identity: The Enlightenment and its Shadows, currently lectures in Sociology and Politics at the Institute of Technology, Sligo and is Visiting Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster.

Stuart Isaacs, whose research interests include classic and contemporary political thought, is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Sociology at London Metropolitan University.