A History of Political Theory is a book that traces the history of political thought from ancient Greeks to Modern Nazism and Fascism. It was authored by Professor George Holland Sabine

George Holland Sabine

G. H. Sabine popularly known as Sabine was professor of philosophy, dean of the Graduate School and vice president of Cornell University. He is best known for his authoritative work A History of Political Theory which traces the growth of political thought from the times of Plato to the modern day...

, philosopher and vice president of Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

.

It was first published on 10 April, 1937 by American Publishers Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., New York. It was written in the light of the hypothesis that theories of politics are themselves a part of politics. In other words, they do not refer to an external reality but are produced as a normal part of the social milieu in which politics itself has its being.

Contents

Part I : The Theory of the City-State

1. The City-State

City-state

A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...

2. Political Thought Before Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

3. Plato, The Republic

4. Plato, The Statesman and The Laws

5. Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

, Political Ideals

6. Aristotle, Political Actualities

7. The Twilight of the City-State



Part II : The Theory of the Universal Community

8. The Law of the Nature

9. Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 and the Roman Lawyers

10. Seneca

Seneca

-People:*Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Seneca the Younger aka Seneca , son of Seneca the Elder, Roman philosopher and playwright, tutor and advisor of Nero*Seneca the Elder , Roman orator and writer...

 and the Fathers of the Church

11. The Folk and its Laws

12. The Investiture Controversy

13. Universitas Hominum

14. Philip the Fair

Philip IV of France

Philip the Fair was, as Philip IV, King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.-Youth:A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of...

 and Boniface VIII

15. Marsilio of Padua and William of Occam

16. The Conciliar Theory of Church Government



Part III : The Theory of the Nation State

17. Machiavelli

18. The Early Protestant Reformers

Protestant Reformers

Protestant Reformers were those theologians, churchmen, and statesmen whose careers, works, and actions brought about the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century...

19. Royalist and Anti-Royalist Theories

20. Jean Bodin

Jean Bodin

Jean Bodin was a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is best known for his theory of sovereignty; he was also an influential writer on demonology....

21. The Modernized Theory of Natural Law

Natural law

Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...

22. England : Preparation for Civil War

23. Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

24. Radicals

Radicalism (historical)

The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...

 and Communists

25. The Republicans

Republicanism

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...

 : Harrington, Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

, and Sidney

26. Halifax

Halifax

-Canada:British Columbia*Halifax Range, a mountain rangeNova Scotia*Halifax, Nova Scotia*Halifax County, Nova Scotia, one of the province's 18 counties**Halifax Regional Municipality, a regional municipality in Halifax County...

and Locke

27. France : The Decadence of Natural Law

28. The Rediscovery of the Community : Rousseau

29. Convention and Tradition : Hume

David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...

 and Burke

Burke

- People :* Burke * Edmund Burke, a prominent 18th century politician commonly referenced as simply "Burke"* Robert O'Hara Burke, a prominent Australian explorer- Australia :* Burke Developmental Road, a Queensland road...

30. Hegel : Dialectic

Dialectic

Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...

 and Nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

31. Liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 : Philosophical Radicalism

32. Liberalism Modernized

33. Marx and Dialectical Materialism

Dialectical materialism

Dialectical materialism is a strand of Marxism synthesizing Hegel's dialectics. The idea was originally invented by Moses Hess and it was later developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...

34. Communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

35. Fascism

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 and National Socialism

Sources

1. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library (http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/ead/htmldocs/RMA00547.html)