In Defence of Politics

In this classic text, the late Bernard Crick – a professor at the London School of Economics and other noted institutions – offers a galvanizing, thought-provoking overview of politics as the sole functioning antidote to totalitarianism. He happily endorses the messy complexity of politics and argues for that mess over the misleading faux simplicity of dictatorships. An admirer and biographer of 1984 author George Orwell, Crick writes with Orwellian simplicity and directness.

A Bad Rap

Politics has become a dirty word, aided by politicians who exploit people’s discontent with the self-serving use of concepts such as “liberty,” “democracy” and “free government.” Many regard politics as “the art of governing mankind by deceiving them”; in truth, Crick argues, politics enables freedom. Politics exists only in the most highly functioning societies, and it stands as a hallmark of liberty.