The third edition of this highly-regarded core textbook offers an accessible and impressively comprehensive account of Western political thought over the last two millennia. Structured in four main parts, the chapters are organised around a wide range of key themes, covering everything from Absolute Government and Revolutionary Political Thought to Politics and Freedom and Theories of Civil Disobedience. This new edition concludes with an Epilogue that considers the challenges posed to the history of Western political thought by the perspectives of post-colonialism and post-modernism. The use of boxes throughout the book to explain key thinkers in more detail, as well as the author’s ability to express complex ideas in clear and jargon-free language, makes this the perfect text for helping students to understand the key debates, issues and continuities in the long history of political ideas.

For undergraduate and postgraduate students studying courses on the history of political thought and theory, this is an indispensable guide.