HIST 489
Western Political Thought in Transition Spring 2010
Division II Writing Skills
Cross-listed PSCI 359
This is not the current course catalog

While modern Western political thought traces its roots to the classical era of the Greek polis, its direct legacy from the Greeks derived in fact from the later (Hellenistic) period. It was monarchical in nature and was destined to be creatively transformed during the turbulent centuries stretching from late antiquity to the eighteenth. This tutorial will focus on that crucial period of transition, which eventuated in the emergence of recognizably “modern” constitutionalist notions of consent, parliamentary representation, and individual rights. Readings will involve both primary texts and secondary sources and will concentrate on the contributions of such authors as Eusebius of Caesarea, Augustine, Aquinas, Dante, John of Paris, Marsiglio of Padua, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.