r/CriticalTheory • u/Khak_Evol • 3d ago

Political Theory Reading Suggestions

/r/PoliticalScience/comments/1x1ua3h/political_theory_reading_suggestions/
4 Upvotes

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6

u/Upbeat_Discussion_59 3d ago

you should just look for a decent textbook/reader to get you started. look up syllabi online for classes and choose stuff from there

3

u/lore-realm 2d ago

Yeah taking an open access course and also reading the required texts is the best idea for a structure intro like this.

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u/gorgonstairmaster 3d ago

Seconding the Schmitt. Also try Sheldon Wolin, Hanna Pitkin, and other actual political theorists, not just culture war horseshit.

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u/maccrypto 3d ago

I gave you some suggestions already on the OP, but if you're interested in this question from the perspective of Frankfurt School critical theory, I highly recommend the book Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory Between Past and Future, by Nikolas Kompridis (MIT Press, 2006). I have never read a more important book of political philosophy than that one, and it begins with and elaborates on just the kind of problem you want to tackle, i.e. political thought as a response to various crises.

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u/ofowningyourself 3d ago

Definitely pick up Tony Smith's Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism

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u/Cultured_Ignorance 2d ago

Structuring this through "crisis and response" is interesting and I believe a good idea. But this list doesn't really do that, from what I can see.

Ideally you'd go: Classical, Reformation, Renaissance, Revolutionary period, Industrialization, Great Wars, Cold War, Digital Age. Significant scholarship exists both within and in response to these horrors. Not going to make a list, but certainly Machiavelli, Calvin, Burke, Voltaire, DeTocqueville, Smith ought to be included. I'd remove folks like Locke, Weber, Foucault, Gramsci.