The Reading Room

The Republic, a Reading Room essay

On The Republic

Michael Fowler

Every argument about who should govern is, in some sense, still arguing with Plato. The Republic is where the conversation starts, and the unsettling thing about reading it now is...

On The Republic

Michael Fowler

Every argument about who should govern is, in some sense, still arguing with Plato. The Republic is where the conversation starts, and the unsettling thing about reading it now is...

Politics, a Reading Room essay

On Politics

Michael Fowler

Where Plato imagined the ideal state, Aristotle went out and counted the real ones.

On Politics

Michael Fowler

Where Plato imagined the ideal state, Aristotle went out and counted the real ones.

On the Commonwealth, a Reading Room essay

Reading On the Commonwealth

Michael Fowler

The word republic comes to us from Cicero, from his res publica, the public thing, the matter held in common.

Reading On the Commonwealth

Michael Fowler

The word republic comes to us from Cicero, from his res publica, the public thing, the matter held in common.

The Prince, a Reading Room essay

On The Prince

Michael Fowler

The Prince is the most slandered book in political thought, and also one of the most clear-eyed.

On The Prince

Michael Fowler

The Prince is the most slandered book in political thought, and also one of the most clear-eyed.

Discourses on Livy, a Reading Room essay

On Discourses on Livy

Michael Fowler

This is the Machiavelli the textbooks forget.

On Discourses on Livy

Michael Fowler

This is the Machiavelli the textbooks forget.

Leviathan, a Reading Room essay

On Leviathan

Michael Fowler

Hobbes wrote Leviathan out of fear, and he was honest about it. England was tearing itself apart in civil war when he set down his great argument, and the horror...

On Leviathan

Michael Fowler

Hobbes wrote Leviathan out of fear, and he was honest about it. England was tearing itself apart in civil war when he set down his great argument, and the horror...