1
of
1
The History of Ideas
Equality, Justice and Revolution
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 123 ratings, 17 reviews)
Brief Description
* 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...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The History of Ideas
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
The First Ever NZ Children's Book Week!
We are so excited to celebrate kids reading books with the first NZ Children's Book...
What Lizzy's Family Loved on a Long Weekend Away
We recently went on a family long weekend away to Ohakune, a new spot for...
Why We Still Love Pokémon
Pokémon has changed enormously since I was trading cards at school and playing it on...
Paw Patrol : The Dino Movie Toys Have Arrived!
The new Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie toys have arrived & are ready to ship!
New Releases to add to your TBR (11th August)
There's a new release for everyone this week - here's your TBR roundup! Lizzy shares...
See moreWhat 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
* 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 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.
'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: 9781800815926
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 03 July 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Profile Books Ltd
Edition: Main
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 30.0mm
Width: 132.0mm
Height: 200.0mm
Weight: 260g
Pages: 320
About the Author
David Runciman is Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge. His previous books include The Handover, Confronting Leviathan, Where Power Stops and How Democracy Ends. He writes regularly about politics for the London Review of Books, and hosts the acclaimed podcasts Talking Politics and 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$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips 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$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips 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$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips 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$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips 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...PaperbackSold Out -
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,...PaperbackSold Out -
The History of Ideas
'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...HardbackSold Out
More from Politics & Current Affairs
View all-
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$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseRegime 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$3299Elsewhere:$4299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseA 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$3200Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Ockham WinnerA 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$4799Elsewhere:$5999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseSuicidal 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$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Signed CopyNew Release
Go Hard or Go Home
From the front bench to rock bottom: Go Hard or Go Home 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$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe 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$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
20% offDiscipline
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$3200Usually:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
10% offThe 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$1800Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips 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$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
'A howl from the heart of our age' — Richard Flanagan 'A unique and urgently needed book.' — Naomi Klein 'A powerful, uncomfortable but thought-provoking read.' — Dua Lipa 'Clear, elegant and devastatingly truthful... Read this shatteringly honest book.' — Max Porter From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, an urgent and necessary reckoning with what it means to...Paperback$3100Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips 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$3699Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips 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
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
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
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.
