What are the essential works in Western political thought?

[Anonymous]

Would you agree on this list?

Plato, The Republic
Aristotle, Politics
Machiavelli, The Prince and Discourses
Hobbes, Leviathan
Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Rousseau, Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Marx, The Communist Manifesto and Capital Volume 1
Mill, On Liberty

It gets more difficult when you get to the 20th century. I'm not sure what's "essential." Rawls' Theory of Justice might be the most important work of the century. Or maybe Isiah Berlin or Hannah Arendt.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps a deviation, but would add Animal Farm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you agree on this list?

Plato, The Republic
Aristotle, Politics
Machiavelli, The Prince and Discourses
Hobbes, Leviathan
Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Rousseau, Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Marx, The Communist Manifesto and Capital Volume 1
Mill, On Liberty

It gets more difficult when you get to the 20th century. I'm not sure what's "essential." Rawls' Theory of Justice might be the most important work of the century. Or maybe Isiah Berlin or Hannah Arendt.

the 100 books that used to be required reading by columbia university when it had a core curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you agree on this list?

Plato, The Republic
Aristotle, Politics
Machiavelli, The Prince and Discourses
Hobbes, Leviathan
Locke, Second Treatise on Government
Rousseau, Social Contract and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
Marx, The Communist Manifesto and Capital Volume 1
Mill, On Liberty

It gets more difficult when you get to the 20th century. I'm not sure what's "essential." Rawls' Theory of Justice might be the most important work of the century. Or maybe Isiah Berlin or Hannah Arendt.

That's the broad humanities, I'm talking about political theory.


the 100 books that used to be required reading by columbia university when it had a core curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps a deviation, but would add Animal Farm.

And 1984 in that vein.
Atlas Shrugged, to our downfall probably

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps a deviation, but would add Animal Farm.

And 1984 in that vein.
Atlas Shrugged, to our downfall probably

I see you are saying those are just humanities but of course those SPECIFIC novels had great great influence on our political philosophies. As did frankly the Odyssey.

And to your philosophers I would add the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle; Critique of Pure Reason, Kant; some Descartes, probably Discourse on Method. The Art of War by Machiavelli. A Vindication on the Rights of Women, Wollstonecraft. The Second Sex Simone de Bouvoir and The Origins of Totalitarianism by Arendt.

[Anonymous]

Oh and the Bible (as a historical text not as gospel), the 99 theses, and the US constitution and bill of rights.

[Anonymous]

I'd add:
Foucault, Discipline and Punish
Butler, Excitable Speech
Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Kafka, Metamorphosis

But, I also think this list (mine, OP's, others') needs to be taught, or at least read alongside critical essays. It's mostly unhelpful to read them alone and then check the box.

[Anonymous]

I would add Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France.

[Anonymous]

Night, Elie Wiesel
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Miseducation of the Negro - Woodsen
The Souls of Black Folk - Debois
To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee

And I agree most if not all of these books should be taught through the lens of their historical place.