This brand new and fully updated edition builds upon nearly three decades of research, thought, conversation, and teaching of the most powerful political ideologies of our era. The Fourth Edition expands the treatment with significantly updated treatments of each ideology and new discussions of conservatism, neoconservativism, imperialism, Islamism, modernity, colonialism, and globalization. It contextualizes and explains the ideological foundations of the American war on terrorism and ongoing developments in nation states where pivotal ideological developments are occurring, especially the United States, China, and Iran. The authors also offer fully updated introductory and concluding chapters on the ongoing significance of studying ideologies and their meaning in a new global era.
What makes The Philosophic Roots an excellent textbook is that it emerges out of vast teaching experience that the authors have in a variety of university and college contexts. Each chapter is written in a way that invites readers at all levels into a classroom dialogue about the vision of humanity offered by each ideology and the kind of political world each ideology seeks to create. In these ways, The Philosophic Roots is an effective learning source for both those with little knowledge about the content of each ideology and those with prior knowledge seeking to think even more about the meaning and political significance of each belief system.