Politics and power

A conversation led by Socrates asks what justice is, and imagines a city ruled by philosophers to answer it. Along the way comes the tale of a magic ring that makes its wearer invisible.

14h 52m reading time

A short handbook of advice for a ruler on how to gain power and keep it. He asks whether rulers should be loved or feared, and says fear is safer if they can't be both.

3h 5m reading time

A record of two years in a cabin beside a pond, paired with an essay on refusing unjust laws. Thoreau lists what his house cost to build, down to the half cent: $28.12½.

8h 27m reading time

A long argument, written during the English Civil War, asks why people should obey a government at all. Without one, Hobbes says, human life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

14h 50m reading time

A short pamphlet argues that history is a struggle between classes, and calls on workers to take power. It opens with the words: A spectre is haunting Europe, the spectre of communism.

48 min reading time

Essays, personal memories, and stories examine Black life in America after slavery. A moving chapter recalls the death of the author's young son.

5h 6m reading time

A clear argument that government exists to protect people's lives, liberty, and property, and rests on their consent. If a ruler breaks that trust, Locke says, the people have the right to replace him.

3h 54m reading time

An essay sets out where the power of society and government over the individual should stop. Its simple rule is that people may be stopped only to prevent harm to others.

3h 33m reading time

A short essay offers a calm, sensible-sounding plan to end poverty in Ireland. The plan is to sell the children of the poor as food for the rich, complete with serving suggestions.

15 min reading time

A short pamphlet makes the case, in plain words, that the American colonies should break free from Britain. Published without the author's name, it calls King George III the Royal Brute of Britain.

1h 29m reading time

A traveler describes a faraway island where people share everything and no one owns private property. On this island, gold is so little valued that it is used to make chamber pots and prisoners' chains.

2h 41m reading time

A study of how cities are governed, comparing kingship, rule by the few, and rule by the many. It is the source of the famous claim that humans are by nature political animals.

6h 10m reading time

This essay presents a plan for lasting peace between states. Its plan follows a treaty's format, with six preliminary articles and three main articles.

2h 25m reading time

This written speech to Parliament argues against requiring official approval before books can be printed. Milton recalls meeting Galileo in Italy and links his confinement to the suppression of ideas.

1h 20m reading time

This political treatise examines how societies form and what gives governments the right to rule. The Social Contract opens with the claim that people are born free but live in chains.

3h 55m reading time

This essay argues for women's equality in marriage, education, and public life. Mill questions how anyone can know women's abilities when laws and customs restrict their choices.

2h 52m reading time

This nonfiction book explains how public relations shapes public opinion through organized campaigns. Its examples include soap-carving contests used to promote a soap brand.

2h 15m reading time

This short account describes Spanish violence against Indigenous peoples during the conquest of the Americas. Its reports move from Hispaniola to mainland regions, recording killings, forced labor, and the destruction of communities.

2h 5m reading time

This essay traces how inequality might have developed as humans moved from solitary lives into organized society. A striking passage imagines someone fencing off land and declaring it his own.

1h 47m reading time

This public declaration explains why thirteen American colonies chose to break from British rule. Its complaints against King George III include his refusal to approve laws needed for the public good.

6 min reading time

These six lectures examine how a public forms and how democracy can work in a complex society. Dewey challenges Walter Lippmann's doubts about ordinary citizens' ability to take part in government.

3h 37m reading time