In order to fully understand the current political climate, it’s crucial to look at the history and influences that brought us here. Our political science and theory list is filled with books that do just that.
Whether it’s a title that looks at the past three decades of political history, or one that reaches back to three thousand years to Ancient Greece, these books carefully examine not just the current political landscape but how that landscape was shaped. While our frontlist titles continue to share the latest insights from political theorists, our backlist supports and develops the conversation around topics such as newly formed democracies, transitional justice, and international labor law. How did we get where we are today, and where will we be going in the future?
Take a look at our backlist titles below as they consider those questions and more.
Athenian Democracy:
Modern Mythmakers and Ancient Theorists
by Arlene W. Saxonhouse
The study of the institutions of ancient democracy has experienced a major resurgence in the last decade. With Athenian Democracy, noted political scientist Arlene W. Saxonhouse offers fresh and provocative explorations of the ancient theorists that will both clarify and stimulate discussion of the role the Athenian democracy can play in our understanding of democratic institutions.https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268006501/athenian-democracy/
“By scrupulously insisting on understanding the Greek theorists as they understood themselves, Saxonhouse’s lively, engaging book develops fresh perspectives on modern as well as ancient politics.”
—Stephen Salkever, Bryn Mawr College
Thick and Thin:
Moral Argument at Home and Abroad
by Michael Walzer
In Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad, Michael Walzer revises and extends the arguments in his influential Spheres of Justice, framing his ideas about justice, social criticism, and national identity in light of the new political world that has arisen in the past three decades. Walzer focuses on two different but interrelated kinds of moral argument: maximalist and minimalist, thick and thin, local and universal. This new edition has a new preface and afterword, written by the author, describing how the reasoning of the book connects with arguments he made in Just and Unjust Wars about the morality of warfare.
“[This] is a moving, eloquent, and at times inspiring meditation on the problem of obligation . . . Walzer writes on some of the most explosive issues of the day in a voice that is always calm and thoughtful. Our culture is thicker because of his presence.”
—Commonweal
Transitional Justice and the Rule of Law in New Democracies
edited by A. James McAdams
This is the first focused study on the relationship between the use of national courts to pursue retrospective justice and the construction of viable democracies. Included in this interdisciplinary volume are fascinating, detailed essays on the experiences of eight countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, and South Africa. According to the contributors, the most important lesson for leaders of new democracies, who are wrestling with the human rights abuses of past dictatorships, is that they have many options.
“Th[is] book offers a good testing ground for theory as applied to fact. It should serve as both a stimulating introduction for the novice and a valuable addition to the bookshelves of experts.”
—The American Journal of International Law
Costs of Justice:
How New Leaders Respond to Previous Rights Abuses
by Brian K. Grodsky
In The Costs of Justice, Brian K. Grodsky provides qualitative analyses of how transitional justice processes have evolved in diverse ways in postcommunist Poland, Croatia, Serbia, and Uzbekistan, by examining the decision-making processes and goals of those actors who contributed to key transitional justice policy decisions. Grodsky draws on extensive interviews with key political figures, human rights leaders, and representatives of various international, state, and nongovernmental bodies, as well as detailed analysis of international and local news reports, to offer a systematic and qualitatively compelling account of transitional justice from the perspective of activists who, at the end of a previous regime, were suddenly transformed from downtrodden victim to empowered judge.
“A truly international comparative history, with a clear explanatory model that can be tested in other regions of the world that have undergone often wrenching post-totalitarian changes with the demise of the Cold War. . . This work deserves to be on the bookshelf of anyone who studies transitional justice, for it will be cited by forthcoming works in the field for years to come.”
—Human Rights Review Online
Defining Global Justice:
The History of U.S. International Labor Standards Policy
by Edward C. Lorenz
Defining Global Justice reveals why the United States, despite showing exceptional restraint in domestic social policy making, played a leading role in the pursuit of just international labor standards. Lorenz’s lucid volume covers a century’s worth of efforts, charting the development of a body of international law and an institutional structure as important to the global economy of the twenty-first century as the battle against slavery was in the nineteenth century.
“This volume is timely. Lorenz provides an insightful history of the US’s role in the development of global labor standards through the ILO. This well-written study persuasively demonstrates that ‘well-organized groups can force the policy process to consider values, other than economic efficiency, in setting economic policies.’”
—Choice
Capitalism and Democracy:
Prosperity, Justice, and the Good Society
by Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.
In Capitalism and Democracy, Thomas A. Spragens, Jr., examines the opposing sides of the free market versus welfare state debate through the lenses of political economy, moral philosophy, and political theory. The ideological battles between advocates of free markets and minimal government, on the one hand, and adherents of greater democratic equality and some form of the welfare state, on the other hand, have returned in full force. Anyone who wants to make sense of contemporary American politics and policy battles needs to have some understanding of the divergent beliefs and goals that animate this debate.
“This brief but powerful book is a much-needed—and timely—Guide for the Perplexed Citizen, and it is as wise as it is witty. Capitalism and Democracy is a masterful synthesis of disparate sources, and a highly intelligent assessment and critique of arguments advanced by various economists, political theorists, and politicians. Spragens’s prose is pithy, clear, and a delight to read.”
—Terence Ball, co-author of Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal