000			02641nam a2200181Ia 4500
999			_c9599 _d9599
005			20220227202709.0
008			200202s9999 xx 000 0 und d
082			_a320.5 EBE
100			_aEbensten, William
245		0	_aPolitical thought in perspective
260			_aNew York
260			_bMcGraw Hill
260			_c1957
300			_a588p.
520			_aThe history of political thought is usually studied in one of two ways: either by reading the great writers themselves or by reading about them. The advantage of the first method is obvious: there is no substitute for the original words and thoughts of the great political writers, any more than an expository and interpretative summary of the contents of Hamlet can ever substitute for the original text. Yet the second method the his- torical account and analysis of political ideas—has its advantage, too: it provides commentary and interpretation of ideas which are often difficult to grasp without the helping hand of the guide and critic. This book tries to combine the advantages of both methods by pre- senting the high points of the evolution of political ideas from Plato to the present as seen by distinguished thinkers and statesmen themselves. Writing about each other, the world's leading political philosophers, states- men, and scholars generally write with a verve and freshness that are not always present in their writing about more abstract issues of political theory. Moreover, in each selection the writer reveals as much about him- self as about the man he comments upon. The kinship of greatness be- tween author and subject adds, is hoped, a new dimension of intimacy and understanding to the study of political ideas. In addition to critical commentaries of distinguished thinkers on each other, I have included commentaries on great political philosophers by some of the world's renowned statesmen, such as Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, Masaryk, Lenin, Churchill, and Nehru. Vital political ideas are thus presented in the double mirror of those who either as creative political philosophers formu- lated them, or as leaders of peoples gave living reality to them. It was not always possible to get the ideal pair, such as this volume contains in the case of Aristotle or Jefferson on Plato, Russell on Locke, Paine or Woodrow Wilson on Burke, Mill on Bentham, Acton on Mill, Lenin or Masaryk on Marx, and Churchill on Lenin. Not all writers in- cluded are of equal importance as creative thinkers or statesmen, and par- ticularly in the case of the more recent writers,
650			_aPolitical Science
942			_cB _2ddc