This course introduces students to major traditions of political theory by reading important historical texts. Students will read selected original texts by theorists such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Marx, Nietzsche, and Max Weber. The course will integrate a historical and thematic approach. In a concluding section of the course students will read essays by major contemporary political theorists applying the historical theory to the contemporary context. 3 Credits