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Theories
of Tyranny From Plato to Arendt Roger
Boesche
1995
History - European, Political Theory, Political Philosophy
Paperback: $35.00 SH
ISBN: 978-0-271-01458-6
This
book explores a little-noticed tradition in the history of European
political thought. From Plato to Aristotle to Tacitus and Machiavelli,
and from Tocqueville to Max Weber and Hannah Arendt, political thinkers
have examined the tyrannies of their times and have wondered how these
tyrannies come about, how they work, and how they might be defeated.
In examining this perennial problem of tyranny, Roger Boesche looks
at how these thinkers borrowed from the past—thus entering into an
established dialogue—to analyze the present. Although obviously tyrannies
are not identical over time (Hitler certainly did not rule as Nero),
we can learn partial lessons from past thinkers that can help us to
better understand twentieth-century tyrannies.
Roger
Boesche is Professor of Politics at Occidental College. He
is the author of The Strange Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville (Cornell, 1987) and editor of Alexis de Tocqueville: Selected
Letters on Politics and Society (California, 1985).
