Theories of tyranny, from Plato to Arendt
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Theories of tyranny, from Plato to Arendt
Pennsylvania State University Press, c1996
- : cloth
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
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.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Plato: The Political Psychology of Tyranny
2. Aristotle: Tyranny as Unnatural
3. Tacitus: Tyranny as a Politics of Pretense
4. Machiavelli: Defeating Princely Tyrannies
5. Montesquieu's Two Theories of Despotism: Fearing Monarchs and Merchants
6. Tocqueville: The Pleasures of Servitude
7. Marx: Despotism of Class and Workplace
8. Freud: The Reproduction of Tyranny
9. Weber: The Inevitability of Bureaucratic Domination
10. Fromm, Neumann, and Arendt: Three Early Interpretations of Nazi Germany
Conclusion: Thinking About Tyranny
Afterword
Index
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