Theories of Tyranny: From Plato to Arendt

by Roger Boesche

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780271014586
Publisher:	Penn State University Press
Publication date:	09/15/1995
Series:	Latin America
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	504
Sales rank:	314,523
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Roger Boesche is Professor of Politics at Occidental College. He is the author of The Strange Liberalism of Alexis de Tocqueville (1987) and editor of Alexis de Tocqueville: Selected Letters on Politics and Society (1985).

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

Editorial Reviews

“Always clear and concise. . . . original. . . . provocative.”

—American Historical Review

From the Publisher