Western Canon reading path
Political Thought
A guided argument about authority, liberty, equality, rights, and democratic life.
How to use this reading path
These works disagree at the roots. Read them in sequence to see how later writers inherit, revise, and reject earlier accounts of political order.
- Books
- 10
- Estimated hours
- 180
- Suggested pace
- 8 months
- Difficulty
- Advanced
The reading order
- The Republic by Plato Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- Politics by Aristotle Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- Two Treatises of Government by John Locke Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- On Liberty by John Stuart Mill Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois Find available editions on Bookshop.org
- The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir Find available editions on Bookshop.org
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