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Social & Political Philosophy

1. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

   Mary Wollstonecraft, Deidre Shauna Lynch

   Third Edition

   Arguably the most original book of the eighteenth century, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a pioneering feminist work.More

2. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

   Max Weber, Richard Swedberg

   The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is Max Weber’s most important work and, since its publication in 1904, has been widely considered the most important sociological study of the twentieth century.More

3. Inventing Human Rights: A History

   Lynn Hunt

   “A tour de force.”—Gordon S. Wood, New York Times Book ReviewMore

4. Walden / Civil Disobedience / and Other Writings

   Henry D. Thoreau, William Rossi

   Third Edition

   This revised and expanded Third Edition adds three important post-Walden essays, "Slavery in Massachusetts," "Walking," and "Wild Apples," bringing the full scope of Thoreau's mature powers to twenty-first-century readers. The texts are accompanied by explanatory annotations, Thoreau's survey of Walden Pond, and the 1852 Walling map of Concord village and its environs.More

5. Democracy in America

   Alexis de Tocqueville, Isaac Kramnick, Henry Reeves

   The Norton Critical Edition presents Tocqueville’s classic text in the Henry Reeve translation.More

6. The Selected Political Writings of John Locke

   John Locke, Paul E. Sigmund

   John Locke’s revolutionary writings created a sea change in political theory and, eventually, in liberal democracy in practice.More

7. Respect in a World of Inequality

   Richard Sennett

   The powerful case for a society of mutual respect.More

8. Leviathan

   Thomas Hobbes, Richard Flathman, David Johnston

   This Norton Critical Edition of arguably the greatest work of political theory written in the English language contains the bulk of Hobbes's treatise, including all chapters except those of interest primarily to professional historical scholars.More

9. The Prince

   Niccolò Machiavelli, Robert M. Adams

   Second Edition

   Robert M. Adams’s superb translation of Machiavelli’s best-known work is again the basis for this Norton Critical Edition.More

10. Utopia

    Thomas More, Robert M. Adams

    Second Edition

    Robert M. Adams’s celebrated translation of Utopia has been meticulously revised for the Second Edition of this Norton Critical Edition as have the accompanying annotations.More

11. The Praise of Folly and Other Writings

    Desiderius Erasmus, Robert M. Adams

    This Norton Critical Edition provides a wide selection of Erasmus’s writings, translated from the Latin into fresh, modern English.More

12. The Communist Manifesto

    Karl Marx, Frederic L. Bender

    This Norton Critical Edition offers a complete historical and philosophical introduction to Marx's Manifesto of the Communist Party.More

13. St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics

    St. Thomas Aquinas, Paul E. Sigmund

    St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics contains translations of carefully chosen and central selections from The Summa Against the Gentiles, On Kingship or The Governance of Rulers, and The Summa of Theology.More

14. Rousseau's Political Writings: Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, On Social Contract

    Jean Jacques Rousseau, Julia Conaway Bondanella, Alan Ritter

    This Norton Critical Edition includes the three most important of Rousseau’s political writings: Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, and On Social Contract.More

15. The Essential Adam Smith

    Adam Smith, Robert L. Heilbroner, Laurence J. Malone