Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
Leviathan - cover

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes

Publisher: Charles Fred

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil—commonly referred to as Leviathan—is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could only be avoided by strong undivided government.

After lengthy discussion with Hobbes, the Parisian Abraham Bosse created the etching for the book's famous frontispiece in the géometrique style which Bosse himself had refined. It is similar in organisation to the frontispiece of Hobbes' De Cive (1642), created by Jean Matheus. The frontispiece has two main elements, of which the upper part is by far the more striking.
Available since: 11/25/2020.

Other books that might interest you

  • Bland Fanatics - Liberals The West and the Afterlives of Empire - cover

    Bland Fanatics - Liberals The...

    Pankaj Mishra

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    In America and in England, faltering economies at home and failed wars abroad have generated a political and intellectual hysteria. It is a derangement manifested in a number of ways: nostalgia for imperialism, xenophobic paranoia, and denunciations of an allegedly intolerant left. These symptoms can be found even among the most informed of Anglo-America.In Bland Fanatics, Pankaj Mishra examines the politics and culture of this hysteria, challenging the dominant establishment discourses of our times. In essays that grapple with the meaning and content of Anglo-American liberalism and its relations with colonialism, the global South, Islam, and "humanitarian" war, Mishra confronts writers such as Jordan Peterson, Niall Ferguson, and Salman Rushdie. He describes the doubling down of an intelligentsia against a background of weakening Anglo-American hegemony, and he explores the commitments of Ta-Nehisi Coates and the ideological determinations of the Economist. These essays provide a vantage point from which to understand the current crisis and its deep origins.
    Show book
  • Soldier in the Sand - A Personal History of the Modern Middle East - cover

    Soldier in the Sand - A Personal...

    Simon Mayall

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Insight into the Middle East from a general with long experience in the region: “His analysis of the revolution in Iran is particularly enlightening.” —John Simpson, BBC journalist 
     
    With the Middle East in a state of persistent change and upheaval, there has long been a need for a comprehensive yet readable study that can give the intelligent and interested layperson a greater understanding of this diverse, complex region. 
     
    Simon Mayall, whose links with the area are deep and longstanding, provides just that in Soldier in the Sand. As well as analyzing the Middle East’s history and religions, which strongly influence people’s actions, attitudes, and relationships, Mayall draws on his own experiences and impressions based on his many years in key military and diplomatic appointments in numerous countries. In addition to knowing many of the key players personally, he has studied, at leading universities, British policy and engagement in the area and he understands the effects of this long-term engagement. 
     
    This invaluable book’s unique mixture of history, politics, academic study, and first-hand experience affords the reader an invaluable insight into a fascinating, fractured, and frustrating area of the world. General Mayall explains complex situations in a thoroughly accessible and human manner, as lecture audiences worldwide already know, and now his knowledge and common sense approach is also available in this important, entertaining book.
    Show book
  • Shadow Government - Surveillance Secret Wars and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World - cover

    Shadow Government - Surveillance...

    Tom Engelhardt

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    “A book about secrets and surveillance . . . [from] one of the great forces on the side of clarity, democracy, openness, and really good writing” (Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark).   In 1964, a book entitled The Invisible Government shocked Americans with its revelations of a growing world of intelligence agencies playing fast and loose around the planet, a secret government lodged inside the one they knew that even the president didn’t fully control. Almost half a century later, everything about that “invisible government” has grown vastly larger, more disturbing, and far more visible. In his new book, Tom Engelhardt takes in something new under the sun: what is no longer, as in the 1960s, a national security state, but a global security one, fighting secret wars that have turned the president into an assassin-in-chief. Shadow Government offers a powerful survey of a democracy of the wealthy that your grandparents wouldn’t have recognized.   “Tom Engelhardt is an iconoclast . . . Again and again, he goes to the heart of the matter, drawing on his awesomely wide reading, his knowledge of history, and his acute political radar system.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Mirror at Midnight   “This collection, focused on the new Orwellianism, is some of the finest writing and finest public service gathered together in book form for your portable pleasure and outrage.” —Rebecca Solnit of Call Them by Their True Names   “Tom Engelhardt’s writing on the new forms of government surveillance is crucial because he has spent a lifetime studying the rise of the national security state.” —Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan
    Show book
  • Summary: Chaos - Charles Manson the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’ Neill & Dan Piepenbring: Key Takeaways Summary & Analysis Included - cover

    Summary: Chaos - Charles Manson...

    Brook Bryant

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Disclaimer: This book is not the official, but a summary & it does not accompany the official. 
    Dive into the murky depths of one of America's most baffling and haunting criminal cases. Our summary of 'CHAOS' by Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring peels back the layers of the Manson murders, revealing a web of governmental intrigue, CIA mind-control experiments, and a turbulent era that reshaped the nation. 
    Originally planned as a simple retelling of the infamous Manson Family murders, O’Neill’s research led him down a rabbit hole of dark and disturbing truths, challenging the official narrative that has been accepted for decades. Our summary distills years of meticulous investigation into a gripping read that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about this iconic case. 
    Are the Manson murders just the tip of a malevolent iceberg? Who were the real puppet masters behind the scenes? Explore these questions and more as you navigate through a labyrinth of conspiracies, cover-ups, and chilling secrets. You'll never look at the '60s—or the American justice system—the same way again.
    Show book
  • The Idea-Driven Organization - Unlocking the Power in Bottom-Up Ideas - cover

    The Idea-Driven Organization -...

    Alan G. Robinson, Dean M. Schroeder

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    “Examples from all over the world make it fun to read . . . convincingly demonstrate[s] the power of incorporating frontline thinking into your organization.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Triggers   Too many organizations overlook, or even suppress, their single most powerful source of growth and innovation—and it’s right under their noses. The frontline employees who interact directly with your customers, make your products, and provide your services have unparalleled insights into where problems exist and what improvements and new offerings would have the most impact.   In this follow-up to their bestseller Ideas Are Free, Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder show how to align every part of an organization around generating and implementing employee ideas and offer dozens of examples of what a tremendous competitive advantage this can offer—not just for revenue but for worker retention. Their advice enables leaders to build organizations capable of implementing twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per employee per year.   Citing organizations from around the world, they explain what’s needed to put together a management team that embraces grassroots ideas and describe the strategies, policies, and practices that enable them. They detail exactly how high-performing idea processes work and how to design one for your organization.   There’s pressure today to do more with less. But cutting wages and benefits and pushing people to work harder with fewer resources can go only so far. Ironically, the best solution resides with the very people who’ve been bearing the brunt of these measures. With this book, you can unleash a constant stream of great ideas that will strengthen every facet of your organization.
    Show book
  • Finland's War of Choice - The Troubled German-Finnish Coalition in World War II - cover

    Finland's War of Choice - The...

    Henrik O. Lunde

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    A selection of the Military Book Club: “A solid operational analysis” from “an established scholar of the Scandinavian theater” (Publishers Weekly).   This book describes the odd coalition between Germany and Finland in World War II and their joint military operations from 1941 to 1945. In stark contrast to the numerous books on the shorter and less bloody Winter War, which represented a gallant fight of a democratic “David” against a totalitarian “Goliath” and caught the imagination of the world, the story of Finland fighting alongside a Goliath of its own has not brought pride to that nation and was a period many Finns would rather forget.   A prologue brings the reader up to speed by briefly examining the difficult history of Finland, from its separation from the Soviet Union in 1917 to its isolation after being bludgeoned in 1939–40. It then examines both Finnish and German motives for forming a coalition against the USSR, and how—as logical as a common enemy would seem—the lack of true planning and preparation would doom the alliance.   In this book, Henrik Lunde, a former US Special Operations colonel and author of Hitler’s Pre-emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940, once again fills a profound gap in our understanding of World War II.
    Show book