Michael Walzer

A noted political philosopher offers a moving meditation on the political meanings of the biblical story of Exodus - from oppression to deliverance and the promised land.

In this collection of essays, Michael Walzer discusses how obligations are incurred, sustained, and (sometimes) abandoned by citizens of the modern state and members of political parties and movements as they respond to and participate in the most crucial and controversial aspects of citizenship: resistance, dissent, civil disobedience, war, and revolution. Walzer approaches these issues with insight and historical perspective, exhibiting an extraordinary understanding for rebels, radicals, and rational revolutionaries. The reader will not always agree with Walzer but he cannot help being stimulated, excited, challenged, and moved to thoughtful analysis.

The Revolution of the Saints is a study, both historical and sociological, of the radical political response of the Puritans to disorder. It interprets and analyzes Calvinism as the first modern expression of an unremitting determination to transform on the basis of an ideology the existing political and moral order. Michael Walzer examines in detail the circumstances and ideological options of the Puritan intelligentsia and gentry. He sees Puritanism, in sharp contrast to some generally accepted views, as the political theory of intellectuals and gentlemen attempting to create a new government and society.

Examines how ethnicity affects voting and party loyalty and looks at leadership among minority groups

Argument från vänster är en samling texter av Michael Walzer från slutet av 80-talet och framåt. Texterna fångar grundtemat i hans författarskap. De handlar om demokrati, jämlikhet och pluralism i ett samhälle genomkorsat av skillnader i kön och kulturell bakgrund. Walzer formar en kritik både mot den traditionella vänstern och liberalismen. Michael Walzer är en av de ledande intellektuella inom den amerikanska vänstern, aktiv som författare, kolumnist och som redaktör för tidskriften Dissent. För svensk publik är han kanske mest känd som rättviseteoretiker, bland annat genom boken Pluralism och jämlikhet, 1994. Michael Walzer är professor i Social Science vid Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.