'A wonderful introduction to history's most influential scribblers' - Steven PinkerWhat is truly at stake in politics? Nothing less than how we should live, as individuals and as communities. This book goes beyond the surface headlines, the fake news and the hysteria to explore the timeless questions posed and answers offered by a diverse group of the 30 greatest political thinkers who have ever lived. Are we political, economic, or religious animals? Should we live in small city-states, nations, or multinational empires? What values should politics promote? Should wealth be owned privately or in common? Do animals also have rights? There is no idea too radical for this global assortment of thinkers, which includes: Confucius; Plato; Augustine; Machiavelli; Burke; Wollstonecraft; Marx; Nietzsche; Gandhi; Qutb; Arendt; Nussbaum, Naess and Rawls. In each brief chapter, the authors paint a vivid portrait of these often prescient, always compelling political thinkers, showing how their ideas grew out of their own dramatic lives and times and evolved beyond them. Now more than ever we need to be reminded that politics can be a noble, inspiring and civilising art. And if we want to understand today's political world, we need to understand the foundations of politics and its architects. This is the perfect guide to both.

Thinker DatesIntroduction: Politics - Might Made RightANCIENTS1 Confucius: The Sage2 Plato: The Dramatist3 Aristotle: The Biologist4 Augustine: The RealistMEDIEVALS5 Al-Farabi: The Imam6 Maimonides: The Lawgiver7 Thomas Aquinas: The HarmonizerMODERNS8 Niccolò Machiavelli: The Patrio9 Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist10 John Locke: The Puritan11 David Hume: The Sceptic12 Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Citizen13 Edmund Burke: The Counter-Revolutionary14 Mary Wollstonecroft: The Feminist15 Immanuel Kant: The Purist16 Thomas Paine: The Firebrand17 Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel: The Mystic18 James Madison: The Founder19 Alexis de Tocqueville: The Prophet20 John Stuart Mill: The Individualist21 Karl Marx: The Revolutionary22 Friedrich Nietsche: The PsychologistCONTEMPORARIES23 Mohandas Gandhi: The Warrior24 Sayyid Qutb: The Jihadist25 Hannah Arendt: The Pariah26 Mao Zedong: The Chairman27 Friedrich Hayek: The Libertairan28 John Rawls: The Liberal29 Martha Nussbaum: The Self-Developer30 Arne Naess: The MountaineerConclusion: The Unhappy Marriage of Politics and PhilosophySuggested Further ReadingAcknowledgementsIndex