Now greatly expanded in its third edition, Political Philosophy: The Essential Texts is ideal for survey courses in political philosophy. Offering unprecedented coverage from antiquity to the present, this historically organized collection presents the most significant works from nearly 2,500 years of political philosophy. The readings are substantial or complete texts, not fragments. An especially valuable feature of this volume is that the works of each author are introduced with an engaging essay by a leading contemporary authority.

Political Philosophy moves from classical thought (Plato, Aristotle, Cicero) through the medieval period (Augustine, Aquinas) to modern perspectives (Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hume, Adam Smith, Kant, Hamilton and Madison, Burke, Bentham, Tocqueville). The book includes work from major nineteenth-century thinkers (Hegel, Marx and Engels, Mill, Nietzsche) and twentieth-century theorists (Arendt, Hayek, Berlin, Taylor, Rawls, Sandel, Nozick, Foucault, Habermas, Held, Nussbaum, Young, Appiah) and also presents a variety of notable documents and addresses, including The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, and speeches by Abraham Lincoln, John Dewey, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In addition to the new selections noted above in bold, the third edition also includes the complete text of Mill's On Liberty, an excerpt from Rawls's Political Liberalism, and expanded selections from Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and The Federalist Papers.

*=New to this Edition
PLATO
Introduction, Richard Kraut
Defense of Socrates:
Crito:
Republic:
ARISTOTLE
Introduction, Richard Kraut
Nicomachean Ethics:
Politics:
* CICERO
* Introduction, Richard Kraut
* On the Republic:
* On the Laws:
AUGUSTINE
Introduction, Paul J. Weithman
The City of God:
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Introduction, Paul J. Weithman
Summa Theologiae:
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
Introduction, Steven B. Smith
The Prince:
Discourses:
THOMAS HOBBES
Introduction, Jean Hampton
Leviathan:
* BARUCH SPINOZA
* Introduction, Steven B. Smith
* Theologico-Political Treatise:
JOHN LOCKE
Introduction, A. John Simmons,
Second Treatise of Government:
Letter Concerning Toleration:
* MONTESQUIEU
* Introduction, Mark Hulliung
* The Spirit of the Laws:
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
Introduction, Joshua Cohen
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality:
Of the Social Contract:
DAVID HUME
Introduction, Arthur Kuflik
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals:
Of Parties in General:
Of the Original Contract:
Of the Origin of Government:
ADAM SMITH
Introduction, Charles L. Griswold, Jr.
The Wealth of Nations:
IMMANUEL KANT
Introduction, Paul Guyer
Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals:
On the Old Saw: That May Be Right in Theory But It Won't Work in Practice:
Perpetual Peace:
ALEXANDER HAMILTON and JAMES MADISON
Introduction, Bernard E. Brown
The Federalist Papers:
* EDMUND BURKE
* Introduction, Burleigh T. Wilkins
* Reflections on the Revolution in France:
Speech to the Electors of Bristol:
* JEREMY BENTHAM
* Introduction, Jeremy Waldron
* Principles of Legislation:
* ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE
* Introduction, Steven B. Smith
* Democracy in America:
G. W. F. HEGEL
Introduction, Steven B. Smith
Philosophy of Right:
Introduction to the Philosophy of History:
KARL MARX and FRIEDRICH ENGELS
Introduction, Richard Miller
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844:
The German Ideology:
Manifesto of the Communist Party:
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy:
Value, Price and Profit:
JOHN STUART MILL
Introduction, Jeremy Waldron
Utilitarianism:
On Liberty:
The Subjection of Women:
* FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
* Introduction, Richard Schacht
* Beyond Good and Evil:
* HANNAH ARENDT
* Introduction, Michael McCarthy
* The Origins of Totalitarianism:
* F. A. HAYEK
* Introduction, David Schmidtz
* The Road to Serfdom:
* ISAIAH BERLIN
* Introduction, Robert B. Talisse
* Two Concepts of Liberty:
CHARLES TAYLOR
Introduction, Robert B. Talisse
What's Wrong with Negative Liberty?:
JOHN RAWLS
Introduction, Joshua Cohen
A Theory of Justice:
Political Liberalism:
* MICHAEL J. SANDEL
* Introduction, Robert B. Talisse
* The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self:
ROBERT NOZICK
Introduction, Thomas Christiano
Anarchy, State, and Utopia:
MICHAEL FOUCAULT
Introduction, Thomas A. McCarthy
Power/Knowledge:
JURGEN HABERMAS
Introduction, Thomas A. McCarthy
Three Normative Models of Democracy:
On the Internal Relation Between the Rule of Law and Democracy:
VIRGINIA HELD
Introduction, Cheshire Calhoun
Non-contractual Society: A Feminist View:
* MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM
* Introduction, Eva Feder Kittay
* The Feminist Critique of Liberalism:
* IRIS MARION YOUNG
* Introduction, Ann Cudd
* Five Faces of Oppression:
* KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH
* Introduction, Tommie Shelby
* The Ethics of Identity:
DOCUMENTS AND ADDRESSES
PERICLES
Funeral Oration:
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Gettysburg Address:
Second Inaugural Address
* JOHN DEWEY
* Democracy:
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Letter from a Birmingham City Jail:
The March on Washington Address:

Steven Cahn , Professor of Philosophy, The City University of New York Graduate Center

Steven M. Cahn is Professor of Philosophy at The City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author or editor of fifty books. Most recently, he wrote From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide to Becoming a Professor (2008) and coauthored Polishing Your Prose: How to Turn First Drafts into Finished Work (2013). Dr. Cahn is the editor of Exploring Philosophy, Fifth Edition (2014) and Exploring Ethics, Third Edition (2013), and the coeditor of Ethics, Fifth Edition (2011), all published by Oxford University Press.

"Political Philosophy is an excellent book that I use often in my courses. It is comprehensive and easy to use. For my part, it is the best such book on the market."--Adam Cureton, University of Tennessee

"The introductions are a real strength of Political Philosophy. They are clear, extremely helpful, and written by leaders in the field."--Matthew Weidenfeld, Elon University

"Political Philosophy is streamlined, comprehensive, and affordable. An eminently functional text for any political philosophy survey course."--Jacob Held, University of Central Arkansas