This is a book about the answers that historians, philosophers, theologians, practising politicians and would-be revolutionaries have given to one question:how should human beings best govern themselves? That question raises innumerable others: can we manage our own affairs at all? Should we even try? Many people in the past have thought that only some individuals were either able or entitled to practise self-government: Greeks, but not Persians; men, but not women; the better-off minority...

One of the world's leading political thinkers explores the history, nature, and prospects of the liberal traditionThe Making of Modern Liberalism is a deep and wide-ranging exploration of the origins and nature of liberalism from the Enlightenment through its triumphs and setbacks in the twentieth century and beyond. The book is the fruit of the more than four decades during which Alan Ryan, one of the world's leading political thinkers, reflected on the p...

An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Aristotle.In On Aristotle: Saving Politics from Philosophy, Alan Ryan examines Plato's most famous student and sharpest critic, whose writing has helped shape over two millennia of Western philosophy, science, and religion. The first thinker to posit that a society should be ruled by laws and not men, Aristotle was born in Stagira, Macedon, in 384 BCE. He would go on to join Plato's...

First published in 1974. As logician, economist, political theorist, practical politician and active champion of social freedom, John Stuart Mill is a figure of continuing importance. In this book the author does full justice to the range of Mill’s achievements, providing an introductory guide to his most important and best known writings including Autobiography, A System of Logic, Utilitarianism, Liberty, and The Subjugation of Women. In their ...

No philosopher speaks more immediately to the excesses of our twenty-first-century world and the limits of human reason than Augustine.It would be almost impossible to exaggerate the influence of Augustine—the once-hedonistic pagan turned ascetic theologian and defender of the early Christian Church—over all the subsequent history of Europe. Augustine ’s political philosophy is pregnant with arguments that racked not only Christian Europe but also much of the moder...

A guiding light to America’s Founding Fathers, Hobbes created the first truly modern political philosophy.In Leviathan, one of the greatest works of political philosophy of all time, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes created the idea of a “social contract” and set out to explicate a doctrine for the foundation of states and legitimate forms of government. In On Hobbes, Alan Ryan explains how Hobbes created the secular conception of the state and p...

An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Machiavelli.In On Machiavelli: The Search for Glory, Alan Ryan illuminates the political and philosophical complexities of the often-reviled godfather of realpolitik. Thought by some to be the founder of Italian nationalism, regarded by others to be a reviver of the Roman Republic as a model for the modern Western world, Machiavelli remains a contentious figure. Often outraging popu...

The Bible, since its first publication circa 14511455, remains the best-selling book of all time at over six-billion books sold worldwide. Its mandateto teach us what is true, to make us realize what is wrong in our lives, to straighten us out and help us do what is right, and to fully equip us to do good to everyone (2 Timothy 3:1517 TLB)is alive and well. The Bible remains popular because it provides answers to many of lifes most pressing questionsincluding queries related to leadership,...

An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, first published in 1865, with a second edition in the same year, and third and fourth editions in 1867 and 1872, has long been out of print. The Examination was, for his contemporaries, a most significant and popular work, presenting an extended treatment of some matters central to empiricism that found little space in Mill's Logic, the best known being his treatment of matter and mind from a psychological view...

God Is Real...Meet God at Church! All human beings depend so heavily on our senses of sight, touch, and smell that we struggle with accepting that God is real. Add that struggle to all the negative things that can happen in life and our default can be feeling lonely, tired, angry, greedy, and anxious among many other unwanted things. One remedy is people coming together, regularly and in person, to worship God together at church "not abandoning our own meeting together" (Hebrews 10:25). At...

Baseball is in the Schneider family blood. Each member of this family, from family founder Felix Schneider in the 1800s to Snider Flint in the present day, has a strong tie to the game and to Brooklyn. Through the years this family has dodged bullets on a battlefield, pitched perfect games, and dealt with the devastating loss of family and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Nine innings—nine generations. One game—one family. Through it all, one thing remains true: the bonds of family are as strong as a...

"Far to the east of the great mountains, across the vast savanna, south of the inland sea, at the edge of the ancient forest... there dwelled the last remaining clan of Arkies." So begins the tale of Confuchsia, a strange creature born amid the sole survivors of the Arkie clan. She looks nothing like her kin and is soon banished from the clan and left on her own to discover who she is and hopefully to find others like her. Confuchsia encounters many fascinating and unusual creatures as she...