This book, first published in 1969, is widely regarded as one of the best studies of Rousseau's thought in any language. In it, Professor Shklar examines Rousseau's central concern: given that modern civilisation is intolerable and a return to the state of nature impossible, how is man to arrange his existence in society? Shklar organises the study around Rousseau's two conceptions of Utopia: the Spartan city and the autonomous family group. She emphasises the importance for Rousseau of psychological factors and shows how, when mediated through his images of authority and use of metaphor, they bring him to his notorious view that man is 'everywhere in chains'. In Shklar's view, Rousseau's conclusion is almost equally pessimistic: the chances are very remote that we can overcome the psychological obstacles to become both men and citizens.
Cultural writing. A working stiff, a hobo, and an irreconilable revolutionist-- that is to say, utterly lacking in qualifications for literary respectability-- T-Bone Slim won for himself a total excl
"In this small but elegant book, Professor Walters approaches the interpretation of antislavery from a fresh vantage point . . . he asks new questions of old sources and comes up with novel and convi
Overview of the state of the world's threatened resources and realistic and politically practical corrective measures. 18 sections include population, ethics, economy, third world cities, agriculture,
The roots of modern Western legal institutions and concepts go back nine centuries to the Papal Revolution, when the Western church established its political and legal unity and its independence from
The study of Latin America has long been an ideological battleground. Scholars disagree on every major issue: the impact of the U.S. influence in the region, the political orientation of the middle cl
This latest addition to the Oxford Readings in Philosophy series covers a topic which is one of the focal points of much of the current work in moral and politicaltheory.
Since economics emerged as a distinct field of inquiry, no other single factor hasoccupied so central an analytical role as labor. A review in the library journal, Choice, noted thatthis book "does fo
Greenberg (neighborhood and brownfields redevelopment, Rutgers U.) and Anderson (urban affairs and planning, Boston U.) look for the source of distrust between producers and regulators of hazardous wa
This analysis points to a pattern of thwarted strategy and failed objectives, which has weakened the influence of the Soviet Union even while its military power has grown, but warns that the United St
'Why do any human beings choose to be socialists? Why has socialist politics proved in practice so frequently disappointing? How far can socialist ideas still serve to inform and guide political judgement in modern states for the better? Are the evident weaknesses of socialist politics in all its varieties likely to lead to its disappearance from modern political activity in the readily imaginable future?' These are the questions John Dunn faces in this book, offering an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of socialism as a political theory. Its strengths, he argues, will always lie in its hostility to the manifest injustices of capitalist property relations. But its weaknesses stem from an inadequate and disingenuous conception of political power and political action, and from the widespread failures of socialist economic planning. Dunn goes on to examine how these failings might be remedied or minimized, given the options available from present conditions and the history of soc
Explores the debate concerning realism and modernism in art and examines the efforts of four influential critics to develop Marxist theories of modern art
