My 10th grade Humanities class is reading selections from the text of the first edition of this book. I've loved what I have read. Probably no other book explains Ideologies better than this book. I've learned about such things as facism, liberalism, and socialism easily.

This is a great book. I give it FIVE STARS!

PS Check out the reader version of this book that has selected readings from people like Locke, Marx, and Hitler, this book is excellent.

This is a superb textbook. I used it in teaching ideology in upper division and lower division classes. Students find it accessible. Yet the book has the nuance and sophistication that are rare for a textbook. I higly recommend this book not just to those who teach ideology or poltical philosophy, but to any political scientist or historian.

This is a really a great collection of Thomas Jefferson's views on liberty, slavery,democratic government, social policy in a republic, education, etc. Forget all of the "interpretations" or "revisionist" histories by professional historians, instead pick up this book and read about one of the greatest philosophers of human liberty and democracy. Reading Jefferson in his original words without the personal views of the historical crowd really brings out his true vision for a great republic. A great buy.

This volume is a welcome addition to the various editions of Jefferson's writings available. Although many of the selections may be found in the Library of America edition, this work conveniently arranges them topically. In addition, there are many pieces *not* available anywhere else. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the work is the large and informative list of short biographies in front. The only real drawback I can see is the exclusion of some important documents, most notably his draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. But on the whole, it's great, and it should appeal to most serious Jeffersonians.

This interesting series of snapshots on the course of modern political theory, from Machiavelli, through Vico, Rousseau, to Marx and Rawls, also contains an important and useful essay, "Marx and Darwin Reconsidered", exposing the myths that surround the supposed letters of Marx to Darwin.
"For more than a century the names of K. Marx and C.Darwin have been linked in an apparently indissoluble union. That union, I shall argue is almost wholly chimerical. It dervies from a myth created after Marx's death by Friedrich Engels, disseminated by later Marxists as evidence for their theory's scientific status, and given considerable credence and suport by the discovery of two letters written by Darwin to Marx. As we shall see the first of these letters is authentic, so too is the second--except that the addressee was not Karl Marx".

History has forgotten the harm done to Marxism by Darwin's theory, as the disastrous equation of evolutionary mechanism, natural selection and class struggle collated in certain more degenerated versions of revolutionary thinking. Setting the record straight is important here, for all perspectives.

The editors have done a good job of including most of the major areas of western political thought of the last two thousand years. A bit skimpy on classical works, but well grounded in more contemporary times and the foundational thought of American and Western democratic ideals. The contents have been edited to ensure that the message is not lost in prose, and the average reader should be able to enjoy the readings, also getting a clear sense of what the original author intended to say. Aimed at the Higher Education market it is a little pricey, but a buy for the shelf of anyone interested in this subjecr area.

I reread this wonderful collection of seminal works of political philosophy often. I used it in my course on ideology. Students will find it challenging to work through, if you assign selections indescriminantly. That is why this reader is meant to complement an equally wonderful textbook written by the same authors. The scope here is awe-inspiring. We begin with Euripides and Pericles in the ancient Greece and end with the latest crypto ideological movements, such as feminism, animal rights activism, green politics, and the end of history thesis. I think that all selections are enlightening. This should be a must book for anyone specializing in political theory, intellectual history, or anyone who wants to understand or effectively employ ideological rhetoric. Great book.