The best political philosophy books

This is my first academic book (I published my first poetry book a year earlier). It's based on my DPhil dissertation, written at Oxford between 1987 and 1991 under the supervision of Geoffrey Marshall. It took me three more years to reshape the dissertation into a book. It's argued that one of the problems of any political system is that the principles which underlie and characterize it might also, through their application, endanger it and bring about its destruction. Democracy, in its liberal form, is no exception. Moreover, because democracy is a relatively young phenomenon, it lacks experience in dealing with pitfalls involved in the working of the system. This is the "catch" of democracy theory.

The ancient Greek writer Thucydides is widely acclaimed as a model historian, someone who managed to anticipate the key principles of studying the past objectively two and a half thousand years before the development of modern historiography. But in fact, while almost everyone praises Thucydides, they praise him for different and sometimes contradictory things - and they ignore aspects of his work that don't fit their own model of what history should be. In this book I explore the whole tradition of reading Thucydides since the Renaissance, to show how much more complex and debatable his approach to history actually was - and to reveal how it raises questions about our own assumptions about the true nature of history-writing.

Born into an age when women could neither own property once married nor vote, Barrett Browning seized control of her private income, overcame long-term illness, eloped to revolutionary Italy with Browning, and achieved lasting literary fame. A feminist icon, political activist, and international literary superstar, she inspired writers as diverse as Emily Dickinson, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf. The first biography of Barrett Browning in more than three decades, with unique access to the poet's abundant correspondence, Two-Way Mirror holds up a mirror to the woman, her art, and the art of biography itself.

What is leadership? How does one become a leader? Do we actually need leaders? In this Very Short Introduction, Keith Grint offers provocative answers to these questions, prompting readers to rethink their assumptions about what leadership is. Indeed, Grint argues that leadership is a very elusive quality, which explains why most books on leadership produce so much heat and so little light. Grint looks at the way leadership has evolved from its earliest manifestations in ancient societies, highlights the early ideas about leadership found in Plato, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, and others, considers how social, economic, and political forces can undermine particular modes of leadership, and discusses the practice of management, its history, future, and influence on all aspects of society.

My book tells the surprising story of how George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson came to despair for the future of the nation they had created.

Americans seldom deify their Founding Fathers any longer, but they do still tend to venerate the Constitution and the republican government that the founders created. Strikingly, the founders themselves were far less confident in what they had wrought, particularly by the end of their lives. In fact, most of them came to deem America’s constitutional experiment an utter failure that was unlikely to last beyond their own generation. Fears of a Setting Sun is the first book to tell the fascinating and too-little-known story of the founders’ disillusionment.

This is my first academic book (I published my first poetry book a year earlier). It's based on my DPhil dissertation, written at Oxford between 1987 and 1991 under the supervision of Geoffrey Marshall. It took me three more years to reshape the dissertation into a book. It's argued that one of the problems of any political system is that the principles which underlie and characterize it might also, through their application, endanger it and bring about its destruction. Democracy, in its liberal form, is no exception. Moreover, because democracy is a relatively young phenomenon, it lacks experience in dealing with pitfalls involved in the working of the system. This is the "catch" of democracy theory.

This is my first academic book (I published my first poetry book a year earlier). It's based on my DPhil dissertation, written at Oxford between 1987 and 1991 under the supervision of Geoffrey Marshall. It took me three more years to reshape the dissertation into a book. It's argued that one of the problems of any political system is that the principles which underlie and characterize it might also, through their application, endanger it and bring about its destruction. Democracy, in its liberal form, is no exception. Moreover, because democracy is a relatively young phenomenon, it lacks experience in dealing with pitfalls involved in the working of the system. This is the "catch" of democracy theory.

Migration is perhaps the most pressing issue of our time, and it has completely decentered European politics in recent years. But as we consider the current refugee crisis, acclaimed historian Peter Gatrell reminds us that the history of Europe has always been one of people on the move. The end of World War II left Europe in a state of confusion with many Europeans virtually stateless. Later, as former colonial states gained national independence, colonists and their supporters migrated to often-unwelcoming metropoles. The collapse of communism in 1989 marked another fundamental turning point. 

Ballot box voting is often considered the essence of political freedom. But it has two major shortcomings: individual voters have little chance of making a difference, and they face strong incentives to remain ignorant about the issues at stake. Foot voting avoids both pitfalls.

Free to Move explains how broadening opportunities for foot voting can liberate millions of people around the world. People can vote with their feet through international migration, choosing where to live within a federal system, and making choices in the private sector. Ilya Somin addresses numerous objections to expanded migration rights, including claims that governments have a right to exclude, and that migration must be restricted to forestall harmful side effects, such as overburdening the welfare state and weakening political institutions.

Negotiation expert Ed Brodow arms readers with the same proven strategies and tactics he teaches to the professional negotiators at Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, The Hartford, Learjet, McKinsey, Starbucks, British Aerospace, the IRS, and the Pentagon. Using a wealth of examples from real-life encounters, Brodow reveals how to develop the skills and confidence you need to achieve your goals at work and in your personal life. After completing Brodow’s basic training program, you will have learned how to conquer your fear of confrontation, develop your personal negotiation style, assess the other side’s strengths and weaknesses, master the art of listening, break through impasses, and create an atmosphere of trust in which the other party is a collaborator rather than a competitor.