NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm specifically looking for material by John Locke or Thomas Hobbes.

Have you considered a Max Barry book? ohhh something perhaps like?

http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/1/40/003/092/1400030927.jpg

JENNIFER GOVERNMENT???

(no, Max Barry isn't paying me thousands of dollars... Neither does he have a gun to my head...)

If you haven't read Levithan by Hobbes yet then do so, it is the base of understanding european and american societies and is valid even novadays.

As you are interested in political literature I would also like to recomend Alexis de Touqueville, who if I am not mistaken (read him in an anthology so I might mistake him for someone else) was important for the evolvement of democracy.
Other authors are: Max Sterner, my favourite, a liberal anarchist and much of an existensialist (good to combine his book "The one and his property" with Levithan), Peter Kropotkin, one of the most important anarchists through all times and a genial man in my sense, and of course Platon with "the State".

Edit: If you have time and might be ready to give up politics for a while it is never to late to read "War and peace" (yes the one by Leo Tolstoj). But remember, it took me about two months and I had REALLY much spare-time by that then!

Have you considered a Max Barry book? ohhh something perhaps like?

http://www.booksamillion.com/bam/covers/1/40/003/092/1400030927.jpg

JENNIFER GOVERNMENT???

(no, Max Barry isn't paying me thousands of dollars... Neither does he have a gun to my head...)

I'm looking for more of a classical view point on politics and society in general. But I would be interested in reading it. Give me a little summary of it.

Anything by Noam Chomsky.

Harry Potter volumes 1 to 5.

I'm looking for more of a classical view point on politics and society in general.
Well then Platon is an obvious choice. or macchiavelli

I'm looking for more of a classical view point on politics and society in general. But I would be interested in reading it. Give me a little summary of it.

Have you read the Left Behind books yet? Even the first one is absolutely facinating. Although i'd hardly say it is classical, it provides a contemporary view of humanity and society as it results in a time of crisis and confusion.

I'm looking for more of a classical view point on politics and society in general. But I would be interested in reading it. Give me a little summary of it.

Go to your nations main page, and look above it.

Well if you get stuck in any of these books a dictionary might help, but be careful they're all socialist don'tcha know ;)

The bible

This has nothing to do with government, but I'm going to recommend them anyway--Brother Fire by W. S. DiPiero and Eyeshot by Heather McHugh. Both are terrific poetry collections, and they're very different from each other.

The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, set in an alternative 1985/6/7 depending which book you read:

1. The Eyre Affair
2. Lost In A Good Book
3. The Well Of Lost Plots
4. Something Rotten

I haven't read Something Rotten yet - waiting for the paperback - but I have no doubt it's as good as the others.

Just bought "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" for my mum's birthday too - that should be good, and at 780-odd pages, it's damn good value.

Oh, didn't read the first post properly. Sorry. Still recommend 'em though.

"Beating A Gay Horse" by Jon Katz.

Start with the one at the top, "Temporary Autonomous Zone". (http://www.hermetic.com/bey)

Not "classical", but interesting and well-written.

ETA: oh, and do you want good books, period, or only good books with a political leaning? Because I have plenty of the former to rec, too.

Have you read the Left Behind books yet? Even the first one is absolutely facinating. Although i'd hardly say it is classical, it provides a contemporary view of humanity and society as it results in a time of crisis and confusion.

Interesting, maybe, but execrably written and plotted. Euch.