Political Thought: A Student's Guide
Politics affect everyone everywhere. Yet most people do not know how to communicate or think methodically (much less unemotionally) about the issues at hand. What we need is for our thinking to be grounded in the basic framework of order, freedom, justice, and equality.
Award-winning professor Hunter Baker helps political amateurs gain a foundational understanding of the subject and encourages seasoned political observers to find a fresh perspective in this book. Learn how to fruitfully consider and discuss politics, and gain a greater capacity for evaluating political proposals and the claims that go with them.
Author
Hunter Baker (PhD, Baylor University; JD, University of Houston) serves as a university fellow and associate professor of political science at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Baker also serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Markets and Morality and as a contributing editor for Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. He is also a research fellow of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Endorsements
“Political Thought is a wonderful introduction to the study of politics. Hunter Baker writes as a true teacher, offering not only rigor and clarity but also a personal touch. He shows his reader that the study of political thought is not just an abstract exercise for dreary academics, but an application of practical reason to the question of how we are to live together in freedom and order to advance the common good. While introducing the student to the greatest political philosophers in history, Professor Baker takes great care in showing the indelible marks these thinkers have left on our civilization, and how they, for good or ill, have shaped the way Christians should critically assess their place in civil society and its political institutions.”
Francis J. Beckwith, Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies, Baylor University; author of Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice
“What is the purpose of politics? How should we order our lives together? In lively and engaging prose, Hunter Baker surveys the answers that great thinkers have given to these enduring questions. His book is an excellent, accessible introduction to the fundamental themes of political discourse—and to why these matter for the rising generation.”
George H. Nash, author, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945
“Hunter Baker provides an accessible and insightful primer on the various streams of thought and action at play in American public life. A notable merit of Baker’s work is that it examines clear alternatives while at the same time doing justice to the dynamic variety in and between different schools of thought. Baker paints a clear and compelling picture of the political landscape and in so doing provides a valuable service both for those learning about politics for the first time and for those seeking a refresher and a summary of political thought.”
Jordan J. Ballor, Research Fellow, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty; author, Ecumenical Babel
