100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

The History of Ideas

Equality, Justice and Revolution
4.43 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 89 ratings, 9 reviews)
Brief Description
'A splendid book: economical, invigorating and surprising' - The Times 'He has that gift, both as a podcaster and as a writer, to illuminate abstruse and abstract ideas with human charm' - Observer In this bold new follow-up to Confronting Leviathan, David Runciman unmasks modern politics... Read More
Format: Hardback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of The History of Ideas. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

What is the history of ideas - and how has it shaped our world today?

What is the history of ideas - and how has it shaped our world today?

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

'A splendid book: economical, invigorating and surprising' - The Times

'He has that gift, both as a podcaster and as a writer, to illuminate abstruse and abstract ideas with human charm' - Observer

In this bold new follow-up to Confronting Leviathan, David Runciman unmasks modern politics and reveals the great men and women of ideas behind it.

What can Samuel Butler's ideas teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies? How did Frederick Douglass not only expose the horrors of slavery, but champion a new approach to abolishing it? Why should we tolerate snobbery, betrayal, and hypocrisy, as Judith Shklar suggested? And what does Friedrich Nietzsche predict for our future?

From Rousseau to Rawls, fascism to feminism, and pleasure to anarchy, this is a mind-bending tour through the history of ideas which will forever change your view of politics today.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781800815902

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 04 July 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Profile Books Ltd

Edition: Main

Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 34.0mm

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 240.0mm

Weight: 524g

Pages: 320

About the Author

David Runciman is Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge and the former Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies. His previous books for Profile include The Handover, Confronting Leviathan, Where Power Stops and How Democracy Ends. He writes regularly about politics for the London Review of Books, created the widely acclaimed weekly podcast Talking Politics and is the current host of Past Present Future.

Also by David Runciman

View all
  • How Democracy Ends
    Scintillating ... thought-provoking ... one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the subject. - Observer Democracy has died hundreds of times, all over the world. We think we know what that looks like: chaos descends and the military arrives to restore order, until the people can be trusted to look after their own affairs...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Handover
    The Singularity is what Silicon Valley calls the idea that, eventually, we will be overrun by machines that are able to take decisions and act for themselves. What no one says is that it happened before. A few hundred years ago, humans started building the robots that now rule our world. They are called states and corporations: immensely powerful artificial...
    Paperback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Political Hypocrisy
    What kind of hypocrite should voters choose as their next leader? The question seems utterly cynical. However, as David Runciman suggests, it is actually much more cynical to pretend that politics can ever be completely sincere. Political Hypocrisy is a timely and timeless book on the problems of sincerity and truth in politics, and how we can deal with them...
    Paperback
    $6499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The History of Ideas
    In this bold new follow-up to Confronting Leviathan, David Runciman unmasks modern politics and reveals the great men and women of ideas behind it. What can Samuel Butler's ideas teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies? How did Frederick Douglass not only expose the horrors of slavery, but champion a new approach to abolishing...
    Paperback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Confronting Leviathan
    Bracingly intelligent ... a wonderful read - Guardian Incredibly timely ... presented [with] wonderful elegance and clarity - Irish Times Based on the History Of Ideas podcast series by Talking Politics host David Runciman, Confronting Leviathan explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics - from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, and...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The History of Ideas
    * THE TIMES BEST IDEAS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2024 * 'A splendid book: economical, invigorating and surprising' - The Times 'He has that gift, both as a podcaster and as a writer, to illuminate abstruse and abstract ideas with human charm' - Observer In this bold new follow-up to Confronting Leviathan, David Runciman unmasks modern politics and reveals the...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Politics: Ideas in Profile
    Ideas in Profile: Small Introductions to Big Topics In the first title of an exciting new series, one of the world's leading political scientists asks the big questions about politics: what is it, why do we need it, and where, in these turbulent times, is it heading? From the gap between rich and poor to the impact of social media,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Politics & Current Affairs

View all
  • New Release
    One Last Question, Prime Minister
    From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Regime Change
    From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4299
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A Different Kind of Power
    #1 New Zealand bestseller #1 Amazon bestseller #2 Audible bestseller #3 New York Times bestseller #3 Sunday Times bestseller #4 Australian bestseller From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Different Kind of Power
    Ockham Winner
    A Different Kind of Power
    What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made...
    Hardback
    $4799
    Elsewhere:
    $5999
    (7)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Signed Copy
    Go Hard or Go Home
    From the front bench to rock bottom:Β Go Hard or Go HomeΒ is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Pre-order
    Out 4 Aug 2026
  • New Release
    Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World
    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have refused to exercise power when they held it, and how progressives should wield power if they are fortunate enough to win a free and fair election in a post-Trump world. The Day After: How to Wield Power in...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Careless People
    Shocking and darkly funny, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to the decisions that are shaping our world and the people who make them. Welcome to Facebook. Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook's potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there...
    Paperback
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Discipline
    Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...
    Paperback
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Shattered Lands
    'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' – PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation … both original and important' – MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Handmaid's Tale
    The bestselling dystopian classic that became a cultural phenomenon and inspired an award-winning TV series. THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it.' Guardian I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no...
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • This Way Up
    The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all-round cartographical nerds, The Map Men! In their long-awaited debut, YouTube’s Map Men bring their highly infectious enthusiasm for everything map-related to the printed page for the very first time, in a brilliantly entertaining and eye-catching tome. Packed with humour and fascinating facts, This Way Up takes a deep dive into the...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.