Comic eBook Library - eBooks | Read eBooks online

An Exhibit on Politics

Power

Declaration of Independence of the Unite... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
The Declaration of Independence and Lett... (by Jefferson, Thomas)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
Review of the management of our affairs ... (by China, China. Appendix. - History & Politics.)
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Jungle, The (by Sinclair, Upton)
Meditations (by Aurelius, Marcus)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
God and the State (by Bakunin, Michael)
Of the Conduct of the Understanding (by John Locke)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
Public Opinion (by Lippmann, Walter)

Power: An Exhibit on Politics

This virtual exhibit examines the history of political ideologies and the on the application of personal and political power within the context of social and resource control. Throughout history, man has struggled for both control, and sovereignty. The concepts of freedom and independence have been great inspiration for writers throughout millenia. These documents are located in the following Collections: Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Government, Law, Literature...among many other volumes of influential works.

The Social Mind

In Twentieth Century Political Thought, political philosopher Joseph S. Roucek draws from E.A. Ross and C.H. Cooley to say that the state has a “social mind” that prescribes forms and obligations to all associations, and shapes the societal composition. The modern discourse of political struggles is that political victors become the leading creators of the “social mind” that control the order of the defeated. This discourse is common in the study of politics that shape modern nations and international relations today (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek).

The Review of the Management of Our Affairs in China, Since the Opening of the Trade in 1834; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839 discusses the history of British influence in China’s opium trade. According to the author, the British collaborated with elite Chinese bureaucrats and merchants, creating profits for a few, but much havoc in the country (; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839, Captain Eliot). The aggression of foreign powers entering into China for their own trade interests transformed the country into German, Russian, British and French “spheres of influence” (“May Fourth Movement,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). In this context, the “social mind” in China was actually being influenced by foreign powers rather than according to the interests of the Chinese themselves. According to China at the Peace Conference, August 1919, Paris became the site for the Peace Conference that brought together the world’s leaders to end the World War I (China at the Peace Conference, August 1919, Far Eastern Political Science Review). Wellington Koo and Cao Rulin represented China. Koo demanded an end to imperialist policies in China (“V.K. Wellington Koo,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). However, Western powers refused his claim. China was the only country that did not sign the Paris Peace Conference Treaty. This led to the May Fourth Movemen t in China (“May Fourth Movement,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

Sovereignty

The writer, Roucek, also states that the indispensable elements of states are populations, territory and sovereign power. The quantity and quality of a population legitimizes a ruling power’s territorial administration. Sovereignty is described as political leaders raising the flag, erecting government buildings and instituting police and army forces to defend their territory. In the words of J.W. Burgess, the original, absolute, unlimited power of the state over individual and collective subjects that reside in that territory (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek). This concept of sovereignty is demonstrated in the the writings of Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. He believed that a state’s stability is always subject to threat.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in a time when France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland battled Italian city-states for regional influence and control (“Niccolò Machiavelli,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a 16th-century political treatise which argued that there is a benefit to leaders using violence to achieve stability and security, also known as sovereignty (The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli). However, political sovereignty may also be born from the social, economic and psychic forces emerging out of the population. According to Popular Sovereignty, in order for a peaceful state to be achieved, informed individuals need to be willing to work toward it. It is the responsibility of the the institutions and laws to support the development of informed individuals who will in turn advocate for popular needs and interests (Popular Sovereignty, Charles Anthony).

Ideology

Roucek adds that the state’s power is founded upon territorial residence and control of vital economic items, such as property. Smaller political units called city-states evolved into states. Ancient monarchies expanded into empires. The ideological leadership of states can be absolutist, tyrannical, representative, democratic, socialistic, militaristic and industrial. Other ideological forms include aristocracy and democracy, theocracy, physiocracy and plutocracy. These differences in governments reflect the techniques that dominant groups use to exercise their power (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek).

New political ideologies are adopted by groups as contexts shift. In 1835, French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, documenting his travels to America and illuminating the amorphous nature of the state (“Alexis de Tocqueville,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Through this book, he wanted to inform France about its changing position in the global arena due to the rise of Anglo-America as an emerging imperial power. De Tocqueville observed how state practice of aristocratic politics was giving way to a new ideal called democratic politics: American democracy allowed people to come together for the common cause of creating their political society according to civil laws, while also expanding across the North American continent (Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville).

Another type of political ideology is socialism, which would critique dominant political orders such as U.S. imperial power. In Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, Louis C. Fraina wrote that imperialism is the height of capitalism as it animates the economic, social and political forces that structure capitalism to exploit workers. Thus, the death of capitalism is an opportunity to practice Revolutionary Socialism, in which proletariat workers depend upon themselves to produce their own needs, in order to change the elite-controlled society (Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, Louis C. Fraina).

Works Cited

“Alexis de Tocqueville.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Anthony, Charles. Popular Sovereignty. London: Longmans, Green & Company, 2010.

Captain Eliot. Review of the Management of our Affairs in China, 1834; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839. London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1840.

Far Eastern Political Science Review. China at the Peace Conference, August 1919. Canton: Diplomatic Association, 1919.

Fraina, Louis. Revolutionary Socialism. New York: The Communist Press, 1918.

Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

"May Fourth Movement." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Roucek, Joseph S. Twentieth Century Political Thought. New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1946.

“V.K. Wellington Koo.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Political Collections

Political matters refer to the calculation of forces that seek to assert power over territory and population. The Nature of Organized Power: An Exhibit on Politics features Roucek’s concepts such as the “social mind,” “sovereignty” and “ideology” to explore how a particular definition of order asserts its power over territory, and circulates its ideals to generate public consent of that order. However, this order is always shifting, as different political ideas co-exist and compete for the manifestation of their ideal reality.

Explore other books on politics in these collections.

Top 100 books on Politics

Declaration of Independence of the Unite... (by United States, Founding Fathers of the)
The Declaration of Independence and Lett... (by Jefferson, Thomas)
Excerpts from Frame of Government of Pen... (by Penn, William)
Review of the management of our affairs ... (by China, China. Appendix. - History & Politics.)
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)
The Law (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Jungle, The (by Sinclair, Upton)
Meditations (by Aurelius, Marcus)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
God and the State (by Bakunin, Michael)
Of the Conduct of the Understanding (by John Locke)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
Public Opinion (by Lippmann, Walter)

Top 100 books on Government

Assize of Arms
The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Ma... (by Thomas ( Hobbes)
Select Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero (by Marcus Tullius Cicero)
On the Law of War and Peace (by Grotius, Hugo)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir)
A Plea for Religious Liberty and the Rig... (by George Ticknor Curtis)
The Philosophical Works of John Locke : ... (by John Locke)
Why wars come; or, Forms of government a... (by Niblack, Albert Parker)
Machiavelli (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
The Politics of Obedience : The Discours... (by De La Boetie, Étienne)
Virginia Declaration of Rights and Cardi... (by Mason, George)
The Constitutional History of the United... (by Cocke, William Archer)
The Law of Nations; (by Vattel, Emer De)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Education as growth; or, The culture of ...
The Female Offender (by Cesare Lombroso, Guglielmo Ferrero)
American Anthropologist : Vol. 4 Volume Vol. 4 (by American Anthropological Association)
On the Functions of the Brain and of Eac... (by Gall, F. J., Franz Joséf)
Social Anthropology (by Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan)
Anthropology; An Introduction to the Stu... (by Tylor, Edward Burnett, Sir)
Public Health Publication : World Health... (by Margaret Mead)
The Andaman Islanders; a Study in Social... (by Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (Alfred Reginald), 1881-195...)
Anthropology and Modern Life (by Boas, Franz)
Journal of Ethnobiology. Volume: v. 16-17 1996-97 (by Center for Western Studies (Flagstaff, Ariz.))
Essays and Studies Presented to William ... (by Ridgeway, William, Sir)
The Dolmens of Ireland, Their Distributi... Volume 2 (by Borlase, William Copeland)
Bulletin (by United States Bureau of Labor)
Kon Tiki Across the Pacific by Raft (by Thor Heyerdahl)
The Races of Man : An Outline of Anthrop... (by Deniker, Joseph)

Top 100 books on Biographies

Autobiography (by Benjamin Franklin)
Famous Affinities of History; The Romanc... Volume Vol. 3 (by Orr, Lyndon)
Plutarch's Lives : Volume 2 (by Plutarch)
The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (R...
The Life of Charles Dickens (by Forster, John)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, S... (by Jacobs, Harriet)
A Memoir of Jane Austen (by Austen-Leigh, James Edward)
Jesus the Christ : A Study of the Messia... (by Talmage, James Edward)
Edison, His Life and Inventions (by Dyer, Frank Lewis)
Leonardo Da Vinci : a Psychosexual Study... (by Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939)
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (by De Quincey, Thomas)
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Volume ... (by Grant, Ulysses Sherman)
Childhood (by Tolstoy, Leo Nikoleyevich)
Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, V... (by Sherman, William Tecumseh)
Celebrated Crimes : Vol. 4 Volume Vol. 4 (by Dumas, Alexandre)

Top 100 books on History of India

Gitanjali : Song-Offerings (by John Alden Carpenter)
Indian Historical Studies (by H. G. Rawlinson)
Indian Narional Evolution. (by Amvika Charan Mazumdar.)
The Laws of Manu; Or, Manava Dharma-Sest...
Twelve Years of a Soldier's Life in Indi... (by Hodson, William Stephen Raikes)
Allan Octavian Hume, C. B. ; Father of t... (by Wedderburn, William, Sir)
Alberuni's India. An Account of the Reli... Volume Vol. 1 (by Biruni, Muhammad Ibn Ahmad)
A Topographical List of the Inscriptions... (by Rangacharya, V. (Vijayaraghava))
Indian Finance Three Essays with an Intr... (by Bernard Mallet C. B.)
The Ancient Church and Modern India (by Phillips, Godfrey E. (Godfrey Edward))
The Appeal of Lieut. Colonel Charles Bar... (by Burr, Charles Barton)
Memoirs of India: Comprising a Brief Gro... (by Wallace, Robert Grenville)
Stephen Hislop : Pioneer Missionary & Na... (by Smith, George)
A Century of Indian Epigrams : Chiefly f... (by Bhartrhari)
The Unrest in India Considered and Discu... (by Syed Sirdar Ali Khan)

Top 100 books on Philosophy

Monadology, The (by Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm)
The Ethics (by Spinoza, Benedict de)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (by Wittgenstein, Ludwig)
Metaphysics (by Aristotle)
Critique of Practical Reason, The (by Kant, Immanuel)
Ethics, The (by Spinoza, Benedict de)
The essay on self-reliance (by Emerson, Ralph Waldo)
Select Orations of Cicero.. (by Cicero, Marcus Tullius)
The Consolation of Philosophy (by Boethius)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir)
Introduction to The Philosophy of Histor... (by Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich)
Utopia (by More, Thomas)
The Sayings of Confucius: A New Translat... (by Confucius)
Letter Concerning Toleration, A (by Locke, John)
Confucius and Confucianism : Four Lectur... (by Walshe, W. Gilbert)

Top 100 books on Sociology

Theories of society; foundations of mode... (by Parsons, Talcott)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Sociology and Modern Social Problems (by Ellwood, Charles Abram)
The Fertility of the Unfit (by Chapple, W. A)
White Collar; The American Middle Classe... (by Mills, C. Wright (Charles Wright))
A Story of the Red Cross : Glimpses of F... (by Clara Barton)
Social Physics: From the Positive Philos... (by Auguste Comte)
Study of Child Life (by Washburne, Marion Foster, Mrs.)
Quaker Hill; A Sociological Study (by Wilson, Warren Hugh)
Village Life in China; A Study in Sociol... (by Smith, Arthur Henderson)
The Growth of Thought as Affecting the P... (by William Withington)
Sex: Avoided Subjects Discussed in Plain... (by Henry Stanton)
Taboo and genetics, a study of the biolo... (by Knight, Melvin Moses)
The Evolution of the Country Community :... (by Wilson, Warren Hugh)
Five Lectures on Blindness (by Kate M. Foley)

Top 100 books on Economics

The origin of the family, private proper... (by Engels, Friedrich)
The Traffic in Women (by Goldman, Emma)
Alfred Weber's Theory of the Location of... (by Weber, Alfred)
The Decline of American Capitalism (by Corey, Lewis)
The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovak... (by Josef Korbel)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
Principles of Economics : Volume 1 (by Alfred Marshall)
In Praise of Poverty
Tableau Oeconomique (by François Quesnay)
Capital; A Critique of Political Economy... Volume Vol. 3 (by Marx, Karl)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (by Oscar Wilde)
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
Children of the Slaves (by Graham, Stephen)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Social Contract, Or Principles of Po... (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)

Top 100 books on Law

Report to Congress in Accordance with 35... (by United States Department of the Treasury)
Institutes of the Laws of England : Or a... Volume Vol. 6 (by Coke, Edward, Sir)
Extraterritorial Cases, Including the De... Volume Vol. 1 (by United States. Court for China)
The Path of the Law (by Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.)
Prince, The (Version 2) (by Machiavelli, Niccolo)
Principles of English Law : Founded on B... (by Campbell, Robert)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
The Foreign Relation of China: A History... (by Pao, Ming-Chien)
The Development of the Associative Princ... (by Christopher Barker)
No Treason : The Constitution of No Auth... (by Spooner, Lysander)
The Critique of Practical Reason (by Kant, Immanuel)
Bartleby the Scrivener (by Melville, Herman)
John King of England (by John T Appledy)
The Age of Reason (by Thomas Paine)