Longlisted for the National Book Award. Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy? Not only the erudite Thomas Jefferson, the wily and elusive Ben Franklin, and the underappreciated Thomas Paine, but also Ethan...

Ten meditations written in the two years before Rousseau's death in 1778 provide an excellent introduction to the thinker's complex world, expressing in its full force the agony of isolation and alienationFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the...

Drawing on the riches of the Western tradition, Anthony T. Kronman defends a humane conservativism for our enlightened ageAs the party of the left has grown more strident, its conservative critics have responded in kind. Each year conservatives do a...

'He that is to govern a whole Nation, must read inÂhimself, not this, or that particular man; but Man-kind.'Thomas Hobbes's LeviathanÂis not just one of the greatest philosophicalÂtexts in the English language; it is one of the most important works in...

First published in 1978, this book rapidly established itself as a classic of modern Marxism. Cohen's masterful application of advanced philosophical techniques in an uncompromising defense of historical materialism commanded widespread admiration. In...

What are ethical judgments about? And what is their relation to practice? How can ethical judgment aspire to objectivity? The past two decades have witnessed a resurgence of interest in metaethics, placing questions such as these about the nature and...

Winner, 2023 Best Book Award, Italian Association for the History of Economic ThoughtOne of the most original social scientists of the twentieth century, Albert O. Hirschman led an uncommonly dramatic life. After fleeing Nazi Germany as a youth, he...

"The passion for destruction is a creative passion," wrote the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in 1842. Since then, the popular image of anarchism has been one of violence and terror. But this picture is wildly misleading, and the media has done more to...

Presents a series of anecdotes that tell the history and meaning of American uniforms, identifying their cultural significance in terms of how uniforms unite and divide people as well as how they vary throughout the world.

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An abstract of a treatise of human nature with an introduction by Charles W. Hendel.

Two leading public intellectuals and dear friends—one progressive, one conservative—explore What is Truth? and Why Does Truth Matter?In Truth Matters, Cornel West and Robert P. George address a range of social issues on which Americans today are bitterly...

This book brings together a wide range of materials from history, religion, philosophy, horticulture, and meteorology to argue that Emerson articulates his conception of history through the language of the weather.Focusing on Emerson's persistent use of...

An award-winning classicist turns to Greek tragedies for the wisdom to understand the damage caused by suicide and help those who are contemplating suicide themselves“Remarkable, brave and compassionate.”—Rowan Williams, New StatesmanIn Sophocles’...

It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. After 1989, capitalism has successfully presented itself as the only realistic political-economic system - a situation that the bank crisis of 2008, far from ending, actually...

The first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of Marx’s relationship to republicanism, arguing that it is essential to understanding his thoughtIn Citizen Marx, Bruno Leipold argues that, contrary to certain interpretive commonplaces, Karl Marx’s...