POLIT 110 - Political Theory

Classical

• The Internet Classic Archive (441 Works of Classic Literature)
• The Iliad of Homer (Project Guttenburg)
• The Odyssey by Homer (Project Guttenburg)
• The Last Days of Socrates by Plato
• The Allegory of the Cave by Plato
• Ancient Greek Theatre (44 plays summary/context from Wikipedia)
• The Clouds by Aristophanes
• Lysistrata by Aristophanes
• Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex) by Sophocles
• Antigone by Sophocles
• The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
• Report on the Athenian Debate to Invade Sicily from The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
• "The Funeral Oration of Pericles" from the The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
• Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
• "The Melian Dialogue" from The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
• Aristotle: Politics (Int. Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Marcus Tullis Cicero
• Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• Polybius: The Histories
• The Art of War by Sun Tzu
• Augustine's Political Thought
• Thomas Aquinas: Political Philosphy

Project Gutenberg

Modern

• eMachiavelli, The Official Site
• Selected Works of Niccolo Machiavelli
• "Machiavelli: The Florentine” by Claudia Roth Pierpoint (New Yorker, 9/8/2008)
• Utopia by Thomas More
• Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
• Thomas Hobbes (Stanford)
• Thomas Hobbes: Moral and Poltical Philosophy (Stanford)
• Two Treatises of Government by John Locke
• A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke
• John Locke (Stanford)
• John Locke's Political Philosophy (Stanford)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Liberty Fund)
• "How Rousseau Predicted Trump" by Pankaj Mishra (The New Yorker, 7/25/2017)
• Charles de Montesquieu
• The Spirit of Laws by Montesquieu (Liberty Fund)
• The Persian Letters by Montesquieu (Wikisource)
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
• Adam Smith Institute
• "Market Man: What did Adam Smith Really Believe?" by Adam Gopnik (New Yorker, 10/11/2010)
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: by Mary Wollstonecraft (Sample)
• A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: by Mary Wollstonecraft (Book site)
• Declaration of Sentiments and Resolution (Seneca Falls, 1848)
• The Federalist Papers
• Edmund Burke
• Democracy in America: by Alexis de Tocqueville
• John C.Calhoun (Selected Writings and Speeches)
• Henry David Thoreau
• On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
• David Hume
• Jeremy Bentham
• John Stuart Mill
• Utilitarianism
• Immanuel Kant
• Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace: A Summary
• On War by General Carl von Clausewitz
• Hegel
• The Alienation of Labor by Karl Marx
• The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels
• An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto
• The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx
• "Karl Marx: Yesterday and Today” by Louis Menand (The New Yorker, 9/10/2016)
• What is to be Done?  by Lenin
• Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler (Internet Archive)
• NYT Book Review of Koestler by Rebecca West (NYT, 1/8/1950)
• “The Legacy of Koestler’s Darkness at Noon” by Christopher Hitchens (SLATE, 9/13/2005)
• "The Desperate Plight Behind Darkness at Noon” by Adam Kirsch (New Yorker, 9/23/2019)
• “The Prisoner Intellectuals” by Paul Berman (New Republic, 5/10/2010)
• The Power of the Powerless by Vaclav Havel
• Vaclav Havel Official Website
• On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Nietzsche's Moral and Political Philosophy
• Nietzsche’s Eternal Return
• Nietzsche Source

      Project Guttenburg

Recent

• Max Weber: Selections in Translation
• Politics as a Vocation by Max Weber
• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
• The Sociology of Max Weber (Weber's "Home Page")
• Weber on Bureaucracy by John Kilcullen
• Political Parties by Roberto Michels
• Iron Law of Oligarchy, synopsis (AboluteAstronomy.com)
• Politics and the English Language by George Orwell
• The Prevention of Literature by George Orwell
• Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) by Majid Yar
• Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt
• The Hannah Arendt Papers
• Totalitarianism in the Age of Trump: Lessons from Hannah Arendt (The Guardian)
• Isaiah Berlin (Essays)
• John Maynard Keynes (Britannica)
• Who was Keynes and What is Keynsian Economics? (Investopedia)
• Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
• The Road to Serfdom--In Cartoons!
• Who was Milton Freedman? What is Monetarism? (Investopedia)
• Ayn Rand’s Counter-Revolution
• Ayn Rand
• "As a Guru, Ayn Rand May Have Limits" by James B. Stewart (NYT, 7/13/2017)
• Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
• The Female Eunich (Summary) by Germaine Greer
• Who Stole Feminism? by Christina Hoff Summers
• The Waves of Feminism Explained..... (vox.com)
• Rational Choice Theory (Business Insider)
• The Free Rider Problem
• Game Theory
• What is Game Theory?
• What is Game Theory and What Are Some of Its Applications?
• The Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin
• "The Pandemic is a Prisoner's Dilemma Game" by Sioban Roberts (NYT, 12/20/2020)
• Michel Foucault
• "How Michel Foucault Lost the Left and Won the Right" (Douthat, NYT 5/25/2021)
• John Rawls
• “Behind the Veil” by Charles Larmore (New Republic, 2/27/2008)
• "The Case Against Democracy" by Caleb Crain (The New Yorker)

 

Videos

Classical

• Homer's Odyssey (Thug Notes)
• Plato
• Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Orson Wells)
• Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Alex Gendler)
• Yet More Cave
• The Republic by Plato: In Depth Summary and Analysis (Course Hero)
• Plato's Republic (Book I: Justice)
• The Euthyphro Animated
• The Trial of Socrates
• Why Socrates Hated Democracy
• Plato's Take on Democracy and Referendums
• The Politics of Plato
• Plato's Best (and Worst) Ideas
• Athenian Democracy: An Introduction
• Aristotle
• The Politics of Aristotle
• Aristotle's Politics (summary)
• Plato and Aristotle (Crash Course: History of Science)
• Plays of the Ancient Greeks
• Origins of Greek Drama (Crash Course: Theater)
• Greek Comedy (Crash Course: Theater)
• Fate, Family and Oedipus: Crash Course Literature
• Oedipus The King (Thug Notes)
• Antigone by Sophocles- Animated Play Summary
• The Clouds by Aristophanes (Course Hero Plot Summary)
• Lysistrata by Aristophanes (Course Hero Plot Summary)
• Why is Aristophanes called "The Father of Comedy"?
• The Battle of the Greek Tragedies
• Why is Heroddotus called the "Father of History"?
• The Persians and Greeks (Crash Course: History)
• Thucydides (Everything Philosophers)
• Thucydides, Father of Scientific History (One Minute Lecture)
• History Makers: Thucydides
• Peloponnesian War (See U in History)
• Athens vs. Sparta (Peloponnesian War in 6 Minutes)
• The Greatest Speech of All Time?
• Thucydides: The Melian Dialouge
• John Green on the Melian Dialouge
• The Thucydides Trap
• Roman Republicanism: An Introduction
• Cicero (Dangerous Minds)
• The Politics of Cicero
• Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on the Role of the State
• Augustine
• Thomas Aquinas
• The Politics of Al-Farabi
• Ibn Khaldun: Asabiyah in Politics
• The Politics of Confucius
• The Politics of Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
• The Causes of War- Sun Tzu

Modern

• Niccolo' Machiavelli
• Machiavelli's Advice for Nice Guys
• Machiavelli- The Prince in Three Minutes
• Niccolo' Machiavelli (Everything Philosophers)
• The Two Sides of Niccolo' Machiavelli
• Dangerous Minds: Machiavelli
• Thomas Hobbes
• Thomas Hobbes- Leviathan
• Hobbes and Contractionism (Crash Course: Philosophy)
• John Locke
• John Locke (Three Minute Philosophy)
• John Locke (Everything Philosophers)
• If We Lose John Locke, We Lose America
• John Locke, Natural Rights
• John Locke, Introduction to the Second Treatise
• John Locke, Second Treatise
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Introduction to Rousseau: The Social Contract
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract
• Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau and Social Contract Theory
• Hobes, Locke and Rousseau Compared
• Locke and Montesquieu
• Montesquieu and Rousseau
• Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws (Founders Club)
• Essential Enlightenment: Montesquieu
• Adam Smith
• Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Summarized
• Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Summarized (Part II)
• Adam Smith's Invisible Hand in One Minute
• Explaining Federalist #10
• Explaining Federalist #51
• Dangerous Minds: Mary Wollstonecraft
• Mary Wollstonecraft (Three Minute Philosophy)
• Mary Wollstonecraft- A Vindication of the Rights of Women
• Utilitarianism (Crash Course Philosophy)
• Jeremy Bentham
• David Hume
• Utilitarianism- John Stuart Mill
• On Liberty- John Stuart Mill
• Henry David Thoreau
• Immanuel Kant
• Immanuel Kant: Perpetual Peace
• Hegel
• Clausewitz vs. Sun Tzu
• Karl Marx
• Was Karl Marx Right?
• A Brief Introduction to Marxism
• Communism vs. Socialism: What's the Difference?
• The Difference Between Socialism, Communism and Marxism (by a Marxist)
• Capitalism and Socialism (Crash Course)
• The Russian Revolution (Crash Course)
• The Soviet Bloc Unwinds (Crash Course)
• Lenin in Five Minutes (Series)
• Animal Farm (Thug Notes)
• 1984 (Thug Notes)
• The Power of the Powerless (Havel)
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Nietzsche in 12 Minutes
• Nietzsche: Does Christianity Make Us Weak?
• Nietzsche: The Superman
• Max Weber
• Weber and Modernity (Crash Course)

Recent

• Isaiah Berlin: Two Concepts of Liberty
• John Maynard Keynes
• Friedrich Hayek
• An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hannah Arendt
• What is the Banality of Evil?
• Hannah Arendt Documentary Meets Reality
• Origins of Totalitarianism- Hannah Arendt
• Hannah Arendt on Political Life (Overthink Philosophy)
• Ayn Rand: How is This Still a Thing? (John Oliver)
• Ayn Rand- Her Philosophy in Two Minutes
• The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)- Thug Notes
• Ayn Rand Interviewed by Mike Wallace, 1959
• What is Feminism?
• History of Western Feminism (in 3:30)
• History of Feminism in 15 Minutes
• Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
• Betty Friedan Interview (BBC), 1977
• Radical Feminism in a Nutshell
• Factual Feminist
• Foucalt
• Foucalt on Fake News
• What is the Logic of Collective Action?
• What is the Free Rider Problem?
• Rational Choice Theory: Collective Action Problems
• Rational Choice Theory: The Prisoner's Dilemma
• The Prisoner's Dilemma
• Rational Choice Theory
• The Tragedy of the Commons
• What is the Tragedy of the Commons?
• The Tragedy of the Commons- How to Avoid It
• The Prisoner's Dilemma (YouTube Search)
• John Rawls
• Veil of Ignorance
• Introduction to Rawls: A Theory of Justice
• What is Justice? (Crash Course)