Greek and Roman Political Ideas

By Melissa Lane,

Book cover of Greek and Roman Political Ideas: A Pelican Introduction

Book description

Where do our ideas about politics come from?
What can we learn from the Greeks and Romans?
How should we exercise power?

Melissa Lane teaches politics at Princeton University, and previously taught political thought at the University of Cambridge, where she was a Fellow of King's College. She has received…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Greek and Roman Political Ideas as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This excellent book is especially useful to those intrigued about the political ideas that currently dominate self-styled liberal western democracies such as the US, the UK, and Canada. Rather than lionize classical Greek or Roman history, this book instead provides nuanced narratives that are intelligible to the non-expert.

These narratives can be drawn on to understand the contested nature of the relationship between citizen and state and some of the historical roots of influential ideas such as justice, republicanism, and sovereignty.

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