Books like Readings in Classical Political Thought (Hackett Publishing Co.) by Peter J. Steinberger

A seminal 16th‑century Italian treatise, The Prince offers practical guidance for rulers, arguing that ends can justify morally dubious means to secure power and glory.

Thomas Hobbes' influential work on social contract and political governance from 1651, addressing the structure of government and society as the way to prevent civil war and chaos.

John Stuart Mill’s classic 1859 essay, *On Liberty*, argues for individual freedom, democratic representation, and women’s rights within a utilitarian framework, shaping modern debates on liberty, civil rights, and political philosophy.

John Rawls’s classic argues that principles of justice, chosen behind a veil of ignorance, would guide free, rational peoples toward equality and fairness in society.

A two-volume study of political thought from the late thirteenth to the end of the sixteenth century, the decisive period of transition from medieval to modern political theory. The work is intended to be both an introduction to the period for students, and a presentation and justification of a particular approach to the interpretation of historical texts. Volume One deals with the Renaissance, Volume Two with the Age of Reformation. Quentin Skinner gives an outline account of all the principal texts of the period, discussing in turn the chief political writings of Dante, Marsiglio, Bartolus, Machiavelli, Erasmus and more, Luther and Calvin, Bodin and the Calvinist revolutionaries. But he also examines a very large number of lesser writers in order to explain the general social and intellectual context in which these leading theorists worked. He thus presents the history not as a procession of 'classic texts' but are more readily intelligible. He traces by this means the gradual emergence of the vocabulary of modern political thought, and in particular the crucial concept of the State. -- Publisher description