Reading Texts on Sovereignty: Textual Moments in the History of Political Thought

Reading Texts on Sovereignty charts the development of the concept from the classical period to the present day. Defined in antiquity as an absolute or supreme type of power, sovereignty’s history has been marked ever since by numerous moments of crisis and contestation through which its meaning has been redefined and reconfigured. Using extracts of key texts selected and analysed by leading contributors from the USA, the UK, New Zealand, Japan, Cyprus, Finland, France, Austria, Israel, and Italy, this volume examines these moments and how different societies have grappled with sovereignty through the ages. The book explores a diverse range of geographical and cultural contexts within which the issue of sovereignty became critical, including ancient China and medieval Islam. In addition, the book includes chapters that respond to the vital interplay between the development of the theory of sovereignty and such momentous historical events and developments as the birth of the democratic polis in the classical world, the legal and political developments that attended the rise of the Roman and Islamic empires, the bitter struggles over sovereign rights between the ‘temporal’ and ‘spiritual’ authorities of medieval and early modern Europe, the English Civil War, the French and American Revolutions, and the October Revolution.

Stella Achilleos is Associate Professor of Early Modern Studies at the University of Cyprus, Cyprus. Her research interests include the intersections between early modern literature and political philosophy (with special focus on the concept of sovereignty), early modern utopian thought, and the early modern discourses of friendship. She has published widely within her areas of expertise and her current research projects include a book-length study on violence and utopia in the early modern period.

Antonis Balasopoulos is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Cyprus, Cyprus. His research interests include comparative utopian studies, 19th and early 20th-century prose fiction, political theory and political philosophy. His essays have appeared in journals including Cultural Critique, Utopian Studies, Postcolonial Studies and Theory and Event, and in a number of edited collections, including the Cambridge Companion to the City in Literature. He is currently working on a book entitled Figures of Utopia: Literature, Politics, Philosophy.

John Morrow is Professor of Political Studies and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.