On Politics: A History of Political Thought: From Herodotus to the Present

It reads almost like a novel. Essential ideas are skilfully articulated. I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone seeking to grasp the core ideas of western political thought.

The parcel arrived damaged it was soaking wet

Era un libro introvabile nella mia città, ma con Amazon ho risolto il problema. Di più non posso proprio dire.

Among the best conventional surveys of "Western" political thinkers' ideas in print. After the introductory chapters, best read selectively as interest leads the reader. Long as it is, it still could use some supplementary surveys that focus more on dissenting and excluded writers still within the framework of the text's project. But this is a good place to start. The book could easily serve as a 2 or 3 term college text ... probably its main target audience.

On the basis that I don’t know much about political philosophy but I know what I like this is an extremely edifying book. The style is easy though very occasionally Mr. Ryan plops a stone into the still waters by resorting to arcane vocabulary (well, at least to me) that causes pauses in the reading with a scrabble for the dictionary. I suspect he's having a bit of innocent fun or, more worthily, he has a deep love of the English language and wants to preserve its richness. Bravo on both counts. But take note; at the very least you’ll need the Oxford Concise as the more modern lightweight dictionaries won’t do. And though I very much doubt that I’ll be using words like rebarbative (oops, my spellchecker doesn’t like that one!) and nugatory down the pub when their more common respective equivalents, unattractive and futile, will do the job without confusing anybody I can however say that I’ve learned more than a bit of political history. As usual the source references have had me filling my Amazon basket with further volumes as I delve deeper into the subject. I am now approaching the end of Book I in this doorstop of a tome and remain a keen reader, which can only reflect well on Mr. Ryan’s magnum opus. So far it has been an excellent general introduction to the broad landscape of the history of political thinking. I recommend it.