JCES Review – Hawes

George KLOSKO, History of Political Theory. An Introduction. Vol. II: Modern (Oxford University
Press, 2013) pp570, £24.99, ISBN 978-0-19969-5454 (pbk)

Professor Klosko’s two volume examination of the extent to which the ideas of political thinkers
actually inspire political actors has earned an established place in the teaching of the history of
Western philosophical thought and this revised second edition of volume two has been
substantially re-written to take account of liberal ideas and debate in the twenty years since it first
appeared.

Volume One of the work covered the ancient and medieval periods, discussing thinkers from Plato
and Aristotle to St Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas and ending with the Reformation, the point at
which, avers Klosko, liberal political theory began to emerge. In taking a fresh look at the modern
era the author concentrates initially on the work of Rousseau, Locke, Hume and Montesquieu,
pausing to make a valuable contribution to the rehabilitation of Niccolo Machiavelli, so
reprehensibly trounced by history for too long.

There follows a particularly insightful chapter on Edmund Burke and his role in the development of
conservative political theory – another example of the value of revising his text in the light of the
most recent academic analysis of Burke’s contribution to the Enlightenment’s faith in historical
progress Not at all averse to all political reform, Klosko demonstrates that his views fall well within
the liberal tradition. The book then moves on to the role of Jeremy Bentham, James Mill and John
Stuart Mill in the growth of Utilitarian Liberalism with its distinctive approach to public policy,
criminal law and individual liberty.

Most political philosophers would agree that J.W.F Hegel is the most difficult of all Western
thinkers; complex and profound, and often impenetrable to the point of obscurity, his works are
sometimes characterised, in Bertrand Russell’s phrase, as absolutist, totalitarian and reactionary. It
is therefore a mark of the success of Klosko’s style that in the chapter devoted to Hegel the reader is
led to consider that perhaps another interpretation is possible – one that Karl Marx considered; that
Hegel was really demanding revolutionary change and a ruthless criticism of everything existing!

And it is with Marx that the book ends, in which the author’s prime purpose is to provide an account
of Marx’s critique of liberal political theory as considered by all the major thinkers discussed in the
earlier chapters.

The book is written in a splendidly accessible style and the author provides frequent and extensive
quotations from the works of all those he discusses as well as details of their lives and contexts in
which they worked. It is aimed perhaps at advanced ‘A’ level students and undergraduates and their
tutors, providing careful expositions of important theorists and clear critical analysis of the extent to
which they bear on current concerns. However it will also find a place on the shelves of those
general readers with an interest in the directions our society and our politics are developing. The
argument that emerges is that as religion retreats from its medieval heights and its influence on
political affairs lessens, and as science continues to unravel the mysteries of the universe, the central
intellectual force of the modern era is reason, with the profound implication for political theory that
authority must be justified; political authority must be shown to benefit society on the basis of
rational argument. Attempts to explain why we need the state are central to modern political
theory, and along with these, exploration of important related questions, for example, about the
kind of state we need. A book for our times indeed.

Derek Hawes

University of Bristol

d.hawes188@btinternet.com