POL10: The history of political thought from c.1700-c.1890 Part II Paper AT4

From the Enlightenment, and extending from the American, French and Haitian revolutions to the advent of novel forms of constitutional government and political legitimacy, this paper explores the formation of the fundamental concepts of modern politics. The paper is divided into two sections. The first covers canonical political theorists through study of their major political writings and includes figures such as Montesquieu, Rousseau, Burke, Wollstonecraft, Hegel, Mill and Marx.

The second section looks at key concepts and debates in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century politics. Topics covered include the relationship between history and progress; novel ways of thinking about the relationship between politics and culture; the rise of political economy as a way of understanding modern commercial societies; the concepts of ‘revolution’, of ‘constitution’, and of ‘liberty’; debates about the status, social, cultural and political, of women; the modern concept of empire; the socialist critique of capitalism; and the mounting challenges to the institution of slavery.

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