BOOKS

“This excellent book is impressively wide-ranging, covering eight approaches to interpreting a variety of texts – and importantly, arguing that we should combine approaches rather than using only one approach. The writing is clear and accessible, and the authors use examples very instructively.”

— Adrian Blau, King’s College London

“How are we to interpret texts of political theory? What approaches work? Can we get different or contrary perspectives to work together? This book gets to grips with these questions, and what is more does so in a highly readable way. This is an eminently clear-headed and thoughtful book, which should be read by all those interested in political theory and its interpretation. It argues for pluralism, in a theoretically considered way, that asks hard questions of opposing styles of interpretation.”

— Gary Browning, Oxford Brookes University

“With clarity, creativity, and verve, Beckstein and Weber advocate pragmatic eclecticism in the practice of political theory. Too often, a few texts and a single method of interpretation are passed unreflectively from teacher to student. Through an insightful, engaging, and often entertaining show-and-tell of methodologies, their limits and possibilities, Beckstein and Weber challenge this status quo. Their book is indispensable reading for beginning graduate students, and a valuable corrective for the rest of us.”

— Nomi Claire Lazar, University of Ottawa

“Beckstein and Weber have assembled an array of vital and interesting approaches to interpreting texts in the history of political thought. Students and practitioners alike will find this text to be a valuable resource for understanding the substance and utility of interpretive methods.”

— Sean Noah Walsh, Capital University

“This book offers balanced discussions of current models of interpretation and invigorates new directions of study. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.”

— Choice

“This is a highly interesting, original, and intelligently written study. Martin Beckstein has utilized some of the latest cutting-edge analyses in political and social theory to reinterpret fundamental economic practices and categories. The book ranges widely across economic practices with a critical eye and teases out intentional and hidden political significance embodied in them. By combining sophisticated theory with often entertaining examples, Beckstein contrives to make the book both challenging and very readable.”

— Michael Freeden, University of Oxford

“The economic colonization of society and politics has been one of the great themes of modern social theory. Martin Beckstein reverses this perspective, asking how far in today’s world everyday economic practices such as consumption or work may contain the potential for new forms of democratic political expression and contestation. Based on a micro-political approach emphasizing the view ‚from below‘ and on numerous examples richly illustrating his argument Beckstein makes an important contribution to a subject that has not so far received sufficient attention.”

— Roland Kley, Universität St. Gallen

“Hervorragender Überblick, sehr verständlich geschrieben.”

— Gernot Gräßner, Europäische Fernhochschule Hamburg

“Das Buch bietet im deutschsprachigen Raum die erste systematische Einführung in Methoden politischer Ideengeschichte. Dabei besticht es durch den klaren, anwendungsorientierten Aufbau – eine solche Publikation hat fraglos gefehlt.”

— Vincent August, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

“Eine sehr zu empfehlende und in dieser Form bisher einzigartige Einführung speziell in Methoden der Ideengeschichte.”

— Andreas Busen, Universität Hamburg

Cosmos + Taxis Vol. 6, Issue 3+4

Edited and with an introduction by Martin Beckstein.

Contributors: Kevin Mulligan, Eno Trimçev, David C. Corey, Noël O’Sullivan, Kieron O’Hara, Efraim Podoksik, Nicholas Capaldi, Ron Dart, Nathan R. Cockram, Leslie Marsh and Sir Roger Scruton.

The Monist Vol. 99, Issue 4

Edited by Martin Beckstein and Francis Cheneval

Contributors: Martin Beckstein, Francis Cheneval, Geoffrey Brennan, Alan Hamlin, Vanessa Rampton, Nir Eyal, Emma Tieffenbach, Guy Kahane, Jonathan Pugh, Julian Savulescu, Kieron O’Hara and Kristóf Nyíri