Ian Adams

Fifty Major Political Thinkers introduces the lives and ideas of some of the most influential figures in Western political thought, from ancient Greece to the present day. The entries provide a fascinating introduction to the major figures and schools of thought that have shaped contemporary politics, including:AristotleSimone de BeauvoirMichel FoucaultMohandas GandhiJurgen HabermasMachiavelliKarl MarxThomas PaineJean-Jacques RousseauMary Wollstonecraft. Fully cross-referenced and including a glossary of theoretical terms, this wide-ranging and accessible book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the evolution and history of contemporary political thought.

Ian Adams examines the tenets of liberalism, socialism, conservatism, Marxism, anarchism, and fascism. This new edition covers recent developments in religious and sexual politics, environmentalism, animal rights, post-Marxism, communitarianism, multiculturalism, and postmodernism. Recent events covered include the Asian financial crisis, the Balkan wars, and the election of the New Labour government. Adams shows how contemporary ideological thinking is still thriving, and discusses prospects for future ideological developments, including the growth of small scale and local ideologies.

Politicians still call themselves socialists, conservatives and liberals, but among these groups exist very different understandings of what these terms represent. This new book provides a clear, comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the ideas and doctrines that have shaped, and will continue to shape, British politics. The first section of the book looks at different aspects of the wider context, the nature of political doctrines or ideologies and the role they play in politics in general. The main section of the book examines individual ideologies, broadly grouped into two categories of "mainstream" ideologies--conservatism, socialism, liberalism, and nationalism--and the "fringe"--namely the Greens, the far left and the far right. British democracy, economic policy and consensus, the nature of ideological thinking and its place in politics are also considered. Finally, a short section considers the future: what forces, such as globalization and postmodernity, will shape the further development of those doctrines which are part of British politics today?