Readings in Medieval Political Theory


Book Description

A useful collection of sources, now reprinted, which document and commentate on the formation of medieval political culture between the 12th and 14th centuries. Aimed at a non-specialist readership fifteen texts are presented in English translation and in chronological order supported by suggestions for further reading. These include letters and treatises by Bernard of Clairvaux, Marie de France, John of Salisbury, Thomas Aquinas, John of Paris, Dante Alighieri, William of Ockham, John Wyclif and Christine de Pizan.




Medieval Political Theory: A Reader


Book Description

A textbook anthology of important works of political thought revealing the development of ideas from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Includes new translations of both well-known and ignored writers, and an introductory overview.




Medieval Political Theory: A Reader


Book Description

A textbook anthology of important works of political thought revealing the development of ideas from the 12th to the 15th centuries. Includes new translations of both well-known and ignored writers, and an introductory overview.




A History of Medieval Political Thought


Book Description

Incorporating research previously unavailable in English, this clear guide gives a synthesis of the latest scholarship providing the historical and intellectual context for political ideas. This accessible and lucid guide to medieval political thought * gives a synthesis of the latest scholarship * incorporates the results of research until now unavailable in English * focuses on the crucial primary source material * provides the historical and intellectual context for political ideas. The book covers four periods, each with a different focus: * 300-750 - Christian ideas of rulership * 750-1050 - the Carolingian period and its aftermath * 1050-1290 - the relationship between temporal and spiritual power, and the revived legacy of antiquity * 1290-1450 - the confrontation with political reality in ideas of church and of state, and in juristic thought. Canning has produced an ideal introductory text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of the period.




The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought C.350-c.1450


Book Description

This volume examines the history of a complex and varied body of ideas over a period of more than a thousand years.




Encyclopedia of Political Theory


Book Description

Looking at the roots of contemporary political theory, this three-volume set examines the global landscape of all the key theories and the theorists behind them, and provides concise, to-the-point definitions of key concepts, ideas, schools and figures.







Citizens to Lords


Book Description

In this groundbreaking work, Ellen Meiksins Wood rewrites the history of political theory. She traces the development of the Western tradition from classical antiquity through to the Middle Ages in the perspective of social history-a significant departure not only from the standard abstract history of ideas but also from other contextual methods. Treating canonical thinkers as passionately engaged human beings, Wood examines their ideas not simply in the context of political languages but as creative responses to the social relations and conflicts of their time and place. She identifies a distinctive relation between property and state in Western history and shows how the canon, while largely the work of members or clients of dominant classes, was shaped by complex interactions among proprietors, labourers and states. Western political theory, Wodd argues, owes much of its vigour, and also many ambiguities, to these complex and often contradictory relations. From the Ancient Greek polis of Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus and Sophocles, through the Roman Republic of Cicero and the Empire of St Paul and St Augustine, to the medieval world of Averroes, Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham, Citizens to Lords offers a rich, dynamic exploration of thinkers and ideas that have indelibly stamped our modern world.




Minerva's Owl


Book Description

As Hegel famously noted, referring to the Roman goddess Minerva, her owl brought back wisdom only at dusk, when it was too late to shine light on actual politics. Jeffrey Abramson provides a lively and accessible guide for readers discovering the tradition of political thought that dates back to Socrates and Plato, with contemporary examples that illustrate the enduring nature of political dilemmas.