Category: Political Thought
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How Should We Learn to Live and Die? Montaigne on Philosophy and Experience
Explore Montaigne on death, education and everyday experience with Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson in the second Beyond the Text conversation.
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Why Did Montaigne Make Himself His Subject?
Why did Montaigne write about himself? Explore his Essays, changing identity and self-knowledge with Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson.
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When Does Disagreement Become Faction? Hobbes on Political Division
The final episode in our Hobbes trilogy examines disagreement, faction and the forces Hobbes believed could dissolve a commonwealth.
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Introducing 25 Political Thinkers: A Beginner’s Guide
A free, illustrated 54-page guide to 25 political thinkers, with quotations, reading suggestions and questions to explore.
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Why Should We Obey the State? Hobbes on Political Obligation
The second episode in our Hobbes trilogy examines covenant, authorisation, sovereignty and the reasons citizens owe obedience to the state.
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Who Was Thomas Hobbes and What Was He Afraid Of?
The first episode in our Hobbes trilogy explores the life, civil-war context and political fear behind Leviathan.
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Hobbes: Fear, Power and Faction – A Three-Part Beyond the Text Series
A three-part Beyond the Text series exploring Thomas Hobbes on political fear, sovereign authority and the danger of faction.
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Rapin: The Forgotten Historian of Party
Paul de Rapin de Thoyras transformed party conflict from a symptom of political decay into a moderated and historically embedded feature of English liberty.
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Fascism: Symbols, Violence and the Politics of National Rebirth
Fascism emerged from the upheavals of interwar Europe as a politics of ultranationalism, violence and promised national rebirth. This essay examines Roman symbolism, Mussolini’s rise, Nazi racial ideology, paramilitary power and the need to use the term with historical precision.
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George Orwell: Truth, Language and Democratic Socialism
Orwell’s defence of truth emerged from anti-imperialism, democratic socialism and the betrayal he witnessed in Spain. This essay explores political language, historical memory, surveillance and power across Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.