Lectures in the History of Political Thought: Michael Oakeshott Selected Writings

by Michael Oakeshott, Terry Nardin (Editor), Luke O'Sullivan (Editor)

Oakeshott's memorable lectures on the history of political thought, delivered each year at the London School of Economics, will now be available in print for the first time as Volume II of his Selected Writings. Based on manuscripts in the LSE archive for 1966?67, the last year of Oakeshott's tenure as Professor of Political Science, these thirty lectures deal with Greek, Roman, mediaeval, and modern European political thought in a uniquely accessible manner. Scholars familiar with Oakeshott's work will recognize his own ideas subtly blended with an exposition carefully crafted for an undergraduate audience; those discovering Oakeshott for the first time will find an account of the subject that remains illuminating and provocative.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, History, Nonfiction

516 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, and philosophy of law. He is widely regarded as one of the most important conservative thinkers of the 20th century, although he has sometimes been characterized as a liberal thinker.
Oakeshott was dismayed by the descent into political extremism that took place in Europe in the 1930s, and his surviving lectures from this period reveal a dislike of National Socialism and Marxism.
In 1945, Oakeshott was demobilized and returned to Cambridge for two years. In 1947, he left Cambridge for Nuffield College, Oxford. After only a year, he secured an appointment as Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics (LSE), succeeding Harold Laski. He was deeply unsympathetic to the student action at LSE that occurred in the late 1960s, on the grounds that it disrupted the aims of the university. Oakeshott retired from LSE in 1969.
Oakeshott refused an offer of Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, for which he was proposed by Margaret Thatcher.

Reviews

[David McGrogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oakeshott is always worth reading. And here we can (almost) listen to him, too - the notes for his lectures are clear, clipped, and lucid, and it is easy to imagine hearing his voice reading them out to you as you go. That he was a brilliant lecturer is obvious. In terms of substance, he is keen, as always, to impress upon his audience both that history is contingent and that political philosophy is generally merely an attempt made by human beings to make sense of the circumstances confronting them. We do not get here an explanation of the evolution of political theory, and nor do we get an attempt to explain history or politics through a theoretical lens. Instead, we get an account of how people have wrestled with the meaning and practical experience of politics across different eras, given the many complex factors which confronted them. One gets the sense of a scholar who was interested in people, rather than theory, and fortune, rather than structures. The book is highly recommended not just to Oakeshott completists, but for anybody interested in politics and the history of ideas.

[James Strauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

某些问题说的很清晰。概念梳理也很透，逻辑前后合的很紧密。由于是讲稿，也有一些方便学生记忆的东西，这个特点也更适用于我

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. A great mind trying to communicate big ideas for undergraduates. Great as a reference, but also as an overview on key aspects of political thought, as well as periods (the section on medieval thought was particularly good).

[Robert Giambo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A transcription of lectures by the author. A survey of political thought from Greeks onward. You will feel like you have learned something from each lecture.