We live in politically charged times, but little of what we contend with today is new and much can be learned from history. From Abraham Lincoln to Nelson Mandela, and from Aristotle to George Orwell, 50 Politics Classics distills the essence of the books, pamphlets, and speeches of the major leaders and great thinkers that drive real-world change. Spanning 2,500 years, left and right, thinkers and doers, Tom Butler-Bowdon's new book covers activists, war strategists, visionary leaders, economists, philosophers of freedom, feminists, conservatives and environmentalists, right up to contemporary classics such as The Spirit Level and No Logo. Whether you consider yourself to be conservative, liberal, socialist, or Marxist, this book gives you greater understanding of the key ideas that matter in our politically charged times.
What if you didn't have to read the 50 most important books on Politics to know the most important ideas? This is the thinking person's guide to the big political texts from across the centuries, from the original pioneers to the contemporary. With insightful commentary for each of the 50 books, key quotes and biographical information on the authors and a guide to further reading,50 Politics Classics gives a unique overview of the political writings that shaped history and are still shaping minds today. From Abraham Lincoln to Nelson Mandela, and from Aristotle to George Orwell,50 Politics Classics distils the essence of the books, pamphlets, and speeches of the major leaders and great thinkers that drive real-world change. Spanning 2,500 years, left and right, thinkers and doers, Tom Butler-Bowdon covers activists, war strategists, visionary leaders, economists, philosophers of freedom, feminists, conservatives and environmentalists, right up to contemporary leaders and thought leaders such as Barack Obama, Isobel Wilkerson and Michael Pillsbury. Whether you consider yourself to be conservative, liberal, socialist, or Marxist, this book gives you greater understanding of the key ideas that matter in our politically charged times.
From Abraham Lincoln to Nelson Mandela, and from Aristotle to George Orwell, 50 Politics Classics distills the essence of the books, pamphlets, and speeches of the major leaders and great thinkers that drive real-world change.
What if you didn't have to read the 50 most important books on Politics to know the most important ideas? This is the thinking person's guide to the big political texts from across the centuries,from the original pioneers to the contemporary. With insightful commentary for each of the 50 books,key quotes and biographical information on the authors and a guide to further reading,50 Politics Classics gives a unique overview of the political writings that shaped history and are still shaping minds today. From Abraham Lincoln to Nelson Mandela,and from Aristotle to George Orwell,50 Politics Classics distils the essence of the books,pamphlets,and speeches of the major leaders and great thinkers that drive real-world change. Spanning 2,500 years,left and right,thinkers and doers,Tom Butler-Bowdon covers activists,war strategists,visionary leaders,economists,philosophers of freedom,feminists,conservatives and environmentalists,right up to contemporary leaders and thought leaders such as Barack Obama, Isobel Wilkerson and Michael Pillsbury. Whether you consider yourself to be conservative,liberal,socialist,or Marxist, this book gives you greater understanding of the key ideas that matter in our politically charged times.
Featuring: ARISTOTLE - BURKE - CLAUSEWITZ - CHURCHILL - FUKUYAMA - GANDHI - HOBBES - NAOMI KLEIN - LINCOLN - MACHIAVELLI - MANDELA - MARX - J.S. MILL - GEORGE ORWELL - THOMAS PAINE - PLATO - ROUSSEAU - SOLZHENITSYN - DE TOCQUEVILLE MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT and many more ... From Abraham Lincoln to Nelson Mandela, and from Aristotle to George Orwell, 50 Politics Classics distills the essence of the books, pamphlets, and speeches of the major leaders and great thinkers that drive real-world change. Spanning 2,500 years, left and right, thinkers and durs, Tom Butler-Bowdon's new book covers activists, war strategists, visionary leaders, economists, philosophers of freedom, feminists, conservatives and environmentalists, right up to contemporary classics such as The Spirit Level and No Logo. Whether you consider yourself to be conservative, liberal, socialist, or Marxist, this book gives you greater understanding of the key ideas that matter in our politically charged times.
Few individuals have had as great an impact on the law--both its practice and its history--as A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. A winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, he has distinguished himself over the decades both as a professor at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard, and as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals. But Judge Higginbotham is perhaps best known as an authority on racism in America: not the least important achievement of his long career has been In the Matter of Color, the first volume in a monumental history of race and the American legal process. Published in 1978, this brilliant book has been hailed as the definitive account of racism, slavery, and the law in colonial America. Now, after twenty years, comes the long-awaited sequel. In Shades of Freedom, Higginbotham provides a magisterial account of the interaction between the law and racial oppression in America from colonial times to the present, demonstrating how the one agent that should have guaranteed equal treatment before the law--the judicial system--instead played a dominant role in enforcing the inferior position of blacks. The issue of racial inferiority is central to this volume, as Higginbotham documents how early white perceptions of black inferiority slowly became codified into law. Perhaps the most powerful and insightful writing centers on a pair of famous Supreme Court cases, which Higginbotham uses to portray race relations at two vital moments in our history. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 declared that a slave who had escaped to free territory must be returned to his slave owner. Chief Justice Roger Taney, in his notorious opinion for the majority, stated that blacks were "so inferior that they had no right which the white man was bound to respect." For Higginbotham, Taney's decision reflects the extreme state that race relations had reached just before the Civil War. And after the War and Reconstruction, Higginbotham reveals, the Courts showed a pervasive reluctance (if not hostility) toward the goal of full and equal justice for African Americans, and this was particularly true of the Supreme Court. And in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which Higginbotham terms "one of the most catastrophic racial decisions ever rendered," the Court held that full equality--in schooling or housing, for instance--was unnecessary as long as there were "separate but equal" facilities. Higginbotham also documents the eloquent voices that opposed the openly racist workings of the judicial system, from Reconstruction Congressman John R. Lynch to Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan to W. E. B. Du Bois, and he shows that, ironically, it was the conservative Supreme Court of the 1930s that began the attack on school segregation, and overturned the convictions of African Americans in the famous Scottsboro case. But today racial bias still dominates the nation, Higginbotham concludes, as he shows how in six recent court cases the public perception of black inferiority continues to persist. In Shades of Freedom, a noted scholar and celebrated jurist offers a work of magnificent scope, insight, and passion. Ranging from the earliest colonial times to the present, it is a superb work of history--and a mirror to the American soul.
The Two Faces of American Freedom boldly reinterprets the American political tradition from the colonial period to modern times, placing issues of race relations, immigration, and presidentialism in the context of shifting notions of empire and citizenship. Today, while the U.S. enjoys tremendous military and economic power, citizens are increasingly insulated from everyday decision-making. This was not always the case. America, Aziz Rana argues, began as a settler society grounded in an ideal of freedom as the exercise of continuous self-rule—one that joined direct political participation with economic independence. However, this vision of freedom was politically bound to the subordination of marginalized groups, especially slaves, Native Americans, and women. These practices of liberty and exclusion were not separate currents, but rather two sides of the same coin. However, at crucial moments, social movements sought to imagine freedom without either subordination or empire. By the mid-twentieth century, these efforts failed, resulting in the rise of hierarchical state and corporate institutions. This new framework presented national and economic security as society’s guiding commitments and nurtured a continual extension of America’s global reach. Rana envisions a democratic society that revives settler ideals, but combines them with meaningful inclusion for those currently at the margins of American life.
In Liberty Defined, congressman and #1 New York Times bestselling author Ron Paul returns with his most provocative, comprehensive, and compelling arguments for personal freedom to date. The term "Liberty" is so commonly used in our country that it has become a mere cliché. But do we know what it means? What it promises? How it factors into our daily lives? And most importantly, can we recognize tyranny when it is sold to us disguised as a form of liberty? Dr. Paul writes that to believe in liberty is not to believe in any particular social and economic outcome. It is to trust in the spontaneous order that emerges when the state does not intervene in human volition and human cooperation. It permits people to work out their problems for themselves, build lives for themselves, take risks and accept responsibility for the results, and make their own decisions. It is the seed of America. This is a comprehensive guide to Dr. Paul's position on fifty of the most important issues of our times, from Abortion to Zionism. Accessible, easy to digest, and fearless in its discussion of controversial topics, LIBERTY DEFINED sheds new light on a word that is losing its shape.
