Machiavelli to Marx: Modern Western Political Thought

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University of Chicago Press, Apr 15, 1979 - Political Science - 401 pages
According to conventional periodization, a profound break in the continuity of Western political theory occurred around 1500 and marked the beginning of "modern" political thought. In Machiavelli to Marx Dante Germino examines the scholars of this period whose works he feels have made significant new approaches to the critical understanding of our world and, consequently, to the problems of our time. Beginning with Machiavelli, the author covers major political philosophers such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Burke and gives lucid, perceptive accounts of what they thought and taught about politics. He discusses utilitarianism, liberalism, scientism, and messianic nationalism through the writings of such influential thinkers as Bentham, Spencer, Saint-Simon, and Fichte and concludes with three of the foremost political philosophers of the nineteenth century—Fourier, Proudhon, and Marx.

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Contents

Modernity in the History of Western Political Thought
1
2 Machiavelli
20
3 Reformation Political Thought t Luther Calvin Hooker
55
4 Hobbes
90
5 Locke and the Origins of Modern Liberalism
116
6 The Enlightenment in Modern Political Thought
150
7 Rousseau
179
8 Burke and the Reaction Against the French Revolution
214
Spencer and Green
255
SaintSimon and Comte
273
Fichte and Mazzini
300
13 Hegel
320
FourierProudhon Marx
344
Epilogue
387
Index
391
Copyright

Bentham and Mill
233

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About the author (1979)

Dante Germino is professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia.

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