Classics of the Western Political Tradition

Most of the main texts that have informed political thought in the west are (thankfully) available for free online. Consider this reading list your homework. Life itself is the pop quiz.

• The Republic (Plato, ca. 360 B.C.)
• Laws (Plato, ca. 360 B.C.)
• Nichomachean Ethics (Aristotle, ca. 350 B.C.)
• Politics (Aristotle, ca. 350 B.C.)
• The Athenian Constitution (Aristotle, ca. 350 B.C.)
• De Res Publica (Cicero, 54 B.C.) [Younge translation] [Barnham translation]
• Treatise on Laws (Cicero, 51 B.C.)
• Institutes of Roman Law (Gaius, A.D. 160)
  
• City of God (Augustine of Hippo, A.D. 426)
• Rule of St. Benedict (Benedict of Nursia, ca. A.D. 547)
• Magna Carta (1215, amended through 1297)
  
• De Regno (Thomas Aquinas, A.D. 1267)
• Treatise on Law - qq.90-108 (Thomas Aquinas, ca. A.D. 1272)
• Utopia (Thomas More, A.D. 1516)
  
• The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli, A.D. 1532)
  
• De Monarchia (Dante Aligheri, A.D. 1559)
• Politica (Johannes Althusius, 1614)
• Leviathan (Thomas Hobbes, 1651)
• Two Treatises on Government (John Locke, 1689)
• Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Men (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1755)
  
• The Social Contract (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762)
• The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848)
• On Liberty (John Stuart Mill, 1859)
  
• Utilitarianism (John Stuart Mill, 1863)