This book is an abbreviated version of Cahn's Classics of Political and Moral Philosophy (OUP 2002). Like that book, it includes the major writings, historically organized, from nearly 2,500 years of political philosophy, moving from classical through medieval views to modern perspectives. It also includes major nineteenth-century thinkers as well as twentieth-century theorists. The works of each philosopher are introduced with a substantative essay written by a leading contemporary authority.