The Book
Yet again, not a book but a lecture series by the Great Courses. Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory, is given by Professor Dennis Dalton, Ph.D. of Barnard College, Columbia University.
The Scope
There are 16 lectures in the series with each lecture being 46 minutes. Dr. Dalton quickly covers all the ground from the Greeks to 20th century thinkers and how they saw their world around them.
Take Away
Honestly, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I did the last course on Greek Philosophy. In some elements, this course and the other are in opposition. Dr. Dalton states Plato was a fond student of Socrates while Professor Roochnik states that wasn’t the case.
Not to disparage the course, I found Dr. Dalton to be engaging and very interesting. Perhaps it was just too broad of a sweep since he had too much ground to cover. Still, many of the facts presented were new to me. Karl Marx’s abject poverty and his writing in London. Gandhi’s inspiration from a quote by Thoreau. The climb of power of Hitler and so on. I was glad I experienced it.
Rating
I would recommend this to most people. It was a good overview.