The Routledge Dictionary of Twentieth Century Political Thinkers - Hardcover

Benewick, Bob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415043719 ISBN 13: 9780415043717

Publisher: Routledge, 1992

Synopsis

From Gandhi to Guevara and Marcuse to Millet - the names are often familiar, but what of the ideas they represent?

The Routledge Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Political Thinkers aims to introduce readers to important contemporary thinkers and the ideas they represent. With 159 entries by over 85 contributors, the book offers a unique and comprehensive guide to the major political forces at work during the century. It includes Western and Third World political theorists, and those who have influenced new movements based on the issues of ethnicity, gender and ecology whose ascendancy will continue into the twenty-first century.

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Reviews

With this book, Benewick and Green enter the crowded fray of dictionaries of political biography. This year's Oxford Companion to Politics of the World [RBB My 1 93] includes entries on 100 political thinkers. Also recent are Chambers Dictionary of Political Biography (1991), Great Political Thinkers (Oxford, 1992), and The Economist Dictionary of Political Biography (1991).

What is unique about Routledge? The editors state that it is the only current dictionary of political biography that covers the Third World as well as the West, and that covers the "new movements based on ethnicity, gender and ecological concerns." Indeed, Third World theorists such as Frantz Fanon and Paulo Freire are included along with feminist thinkers and theorists on race. The editors identify three types of political thinkers: those that largely (1) do, (2) think, or (3) write. Some "doers," such as Ataturk, Castro, and the Ayatollah Khomeini are treated, but the majority of the 159 entries are for political theorists.

The book is partially successful. Its breadth is wonderful. The subjects range from Hannah Arendt to Simone de Beauvoir and from Booker T. Washington to Sigmund Freud. Missing are Oswald Spengler and Noam Chomsky. Entries range from a short sentence for American Marxist Paul Baran to more than three pages for Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich von Hayek. Entries often end with references to other entries in the book. Each concludes with a list of the subject's works and a list of other works about the subject. The lack of a subject index is a flaw. There is no way to find entries for socialists, Marxists, or libertarians, for example.

Many of the figures in Routledge are so well known that information about them can be found in many other sources. Those needing a brief readable summary of the thought of some contemporary theorists, such as feminist writer Catherine MacKinnon or libertarian thinker Robert Nozick, will find this book useful. For libraries on a tight budget, the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World is a better choice.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415043719
• ISBN 13: 9780415043717
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 262