Political Theorists in Context

Book Details

• Author: Chris Sparks

• Publisher: Routledge

• Language: English

• Edition: 1

• ISBN: 9780415201261

• Cover: Paperback

• Number of Pages: 272

• Package Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches

About The Book

Political Theory: An Introduction by Chris Sparks offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to political thought, providing historical context for the development of key political theorists' ideas. This textbook is designed to help students understand political theory by tracing the evolution of ideas through three transformative epochs: the English, French, and Industrial Revolutions.

The book examines the works of influential political thinkers such as Milton, Hobbes, the Levellers and the Diggers, Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and Mikhail Bakunin. Each theorist’s ideas are analyzed in relation to the political events and issues of their time, showing how they responded to or shaped the political landscape.

Student-friendly and thorough, the text provides key concepts, further reading suggestions, and revision notes in each chapter, making it ideal for those approaching political theory without extensive prior knowledge of the historical and cultural developments that shaped these ideas.

About the Author/Editor

Chris Sparks is a scholar in political theory and the author of works including Montesquieu’s Vision: Uncertainty and Modernity and Uncertainty and Identity: The Enlightenment and its Shadows. He currently teaches Sociology and Politics at the Institute of Technology, Sligo, and serves as a Visiting Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster.

Stuart Isaacs is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Sociology at London Metropolitan University, with research interests spanning classic and contemporary political thought.