Hawaii eBook Library - eBooks | Read eBooks online

An Exhibit on Politics

Power

The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Ten Days That Shook the World (by John Reed)
Gulliver's Travels (by Swift, Jonathan)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Albany Plan of Union (by Franklin, Benjamin)

Power: An Exhibit on Politics

This virtual exhibit examines the history of political ideologies and the on the application of personal and political power within the context of social and resource control. Throughout history, man has struggled for both control, and sovereignty. The concepts of freedom and independence have been great inspiration for writers throughout millenia. These documents are located in the following Collections: Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Government, Law, Literature...among many other volumes of influential works.

The Social Mind

In Twentieth Century Political Thought, political philosopher Joseph S. Roucek draws from E.A. Ross and C.H. Cooley to say that the state has a “social mind” that prescribes forms and obligations to all associations, and shapes the societal composition. The modern discourse of political struggles is that political victors become the leading creators of the “social mind” that control the order of the defeated. This discourse is common in the study of politics that shape modern nations and international relations today (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek).

The Review of the Management of Our Affairs in China, Since the Opening of the Trade in 1834; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839 discusses the history of British influence in China’s opium trade. According to the author, the British collaborated with elite Chinese bureaucrats and merchants, creating profits for a few, but much havoc in the country (; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839, Captain Eliot). The aggression of foreign powers entering into China for their own trade interests transformed the country into German, Russian, British and French “spheres of influence” (“May Fourth Movement,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). In this context, the “social mind” in China was actually being influenced by foreign powers rather than according to the interests of the Chinese themselves. According to China at the Peace Conference, August 1919, Paris became the site for the Peace Conference that brought together the world’s leaders to end the World War I (China at the Peace Conference, August 1919, Far Eastern Political Science Review). Wellington Koo and Cao Rulin represented China. Koo demanded an end to imperialist policies in China (“V.K. Wellington Koo,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). However, Western powers refused his claim. China was the only country that did not sign the Paris Peace Conference Treaty. This led to the May Fourth Movemen t in China (“May Fourth Movement,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

Sovereignty

The writer, Roucek, also states that the indispensable elements of states are populations, territory and sovereign power. The quantity and quality of a population legitimizes a ruling power’s territorial administration. Sovereignty is described as political leaders raising the flag, erecting government buildings and instituting police and army forces to defend their territory. In the words of J.W. Burgess, the original, absolute, unlimited power of the state over individual and collective subjects that reside in that territory (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek). This concept of sovereignty is demonstrated in the the writings of Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. He believed that a state’s stability is always subject to threat.

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in a time when France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland battled Italian city-states for regional influence and control (“Niccolò Machiavelli,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a 16th-century political treatise which argued that there is a benefit to leaders using violence to achieve stability and security, also known as sovereignty (The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli). However, political sovereignty may also be born from the social, economic and psychic forces emerging out of the population. According to Popular Sovereignty, in order for a peaceful state to be achieved, informed individuals need to be willing to work toward it. It is the responsibility of the the institutions and laws to support the development of informed individuals who will in turn advocate for popular needs and interests (Popular Sovereignty, Charles Anthony).

Ideology

Roucek adds that the state’s power is founded upon territorial residence and control of vital economic items, such as property. Smaller political units called city-states evolved into states. Ancient monarchies expanded into empires. The ideological leadership of states can be absolutist, tyrannical, representative, democratic, socialistic, militaristic and industrial. Other ideological forms include aristocracy and democracy, theocracy, physiocracy and plutocracy. These differences in governments reflect the techniques that dominant groups use to exercise their power (Twentieth Century Political Thought, Joseph S. Roucek).

New political ideologies are adopted by groups as contexts shift. In 1835, French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, documenting his travels to America and illuminating the amorphous nature of the state (“Alexis de Tocqueville,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Through this book, he wanted to inform France about its changing position in the global arena due to the rise of Anglo-America as an emerging imperial power. De Tocqueville observed how state practice of aristocratic politics was giving way to a new ideal called democratic politics: American democracy allowed people to come together for the common cause of creating their political society according to civil laws, while also expanding across the North American continent (Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville).

Another type of political ideology is socialism, which would critique dominant political orders such as U.S. imperial power. In Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, Louis C. Fraina wrote that imperialism is the height of capitalism as it animates the economic, social and political forces that structure capitalism to exploit workers. Thus, the death of capitalism is an opportunity to practice Revolutionary Socialism, in which proletariat workers depend upon themselves to produce their own needs, in order to change the elite-controlled society (Revolutionary Socialism, A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, Louis C. Fraina).

Works Cited

“Alexis de Tocqueville.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Anthony, Charles. Popular Sovereignty. London: Longmans, Green & Company, 2010.

Captain Eliot. Review of the Management of our Affairs in China, 1834; With an Analysis of the Government Despatches from the Assumption of Office by Capt. Elliott, on the 14th December, 1836, to the 22d of March, 1839. London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1840.

Far Eastern Political Science Review. China at the Peace Conference, August 1919. Canton: Diplomatic Association, 1919.

Fraina, Louis. Revolutionary Socialism. New York: The Communist Press, 1918.

Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. London: Oxford University Press, 1921.

"May Fourth Movement." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Roucek, Joseph S. Twentieth Century Political Thought. New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1946.

“V.K. Wellington Koo.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Political Collections

Political matters refer to the calculation of forces that seek to assert power over territory and population. The Nature of Organized Power: An Exhibit on Politics features Roucek’s concepts such as the “social mind,” “sovereignty” and “ideology” to explore how a particular definition of order asserts its power over territory, and circulates its ideals to generate public consent of that order. However, this order is always shifting, as different political ideas co-exist and compete for the manifestation of their ideal reality.

Explore other books on politics in these collections.

Top 100 books on Politics

The Trial (by Kafka, Franz)
Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor)
The Conquest of Bread (by Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, Kniaz)
The Elements of Law Natural and Politic (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Ten Days That Shook the World (by John Reed)
Gulliver's Travels (by Swift, Jonathan)
Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
The Subjection of Women (by Mill, John Stuart)
Anarchism and Other Essays (by Emma Goldman)
The Art of War (by Tzu, Sun)
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Founda... (by Rousseau, Jean-Jacques)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Albany Plan of Union (by Franklin, Benjamin)

Top 100 books on Government

The moral crusader, William Lloyd Garris... (by Smith, Goldwin)
The Code of Hammurabi (by King, Leonard W.)
Chronological Tables of the Chinese Dyna... (by E. R. Lyman, Tso-Ting Wang, Theodore Wong)
History of the Greek Revolution : Compil... (by John Lee Comstock)
On Liberty (by Winthrop, John)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
The Principles of Natural and Politic La... (by Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques)
The Origin and Growth of the Common Law ... (by Hamilton, Peter Joseph)
De Republica Anglorum; A Discourse on th... (by Smith, Thomas, Sir)
Lex, Rex : The Law and the Prince, A Dis...
1581 : The Dutch Declaration of Independ... (by Hutchinson, Joshua)
Columbia Law Review (by Columbia University. School of Law)
Plato redivivus : or, A dialogue concern... (by Neville, Henry)
On the principles of political economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
An Introduction to the Principles of Mor... (by Bentham, Jeremy)

Top 100 books on Anthropology

Curators, Collections, And Contexts : An... Volume Fieldiana, Anthropology, new series, no.36 (by Field Museum of Natural History)
Types of Mankind, Or, Ethnological Resea... (by Nott, Josiah Clark)
Systematic Theology (by Hodge, Charles)
The Living World : Containing Descriptio... Volume v 1 (by Arnold, Augustus C. L.)
Social structure (by Murdock, George Peter)
Anthropology; An Introduction to the Stu... (by Tylor, Edward Burnett, Sir)
The Prehistoric World : Or, Vanished Rac... (by Allen, E. A.)
Anthropology and the Classics : Six Lect... (by Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, Sir John Linton Myres...)
General Anthropology (by Boas, Franz)
The Golden Bough : A Study in Magic and ... (by Frazer, James George, Sir)
Anthropology as a Practical Science. Add... (by Temple, Richard Carnac, Sir)
Chinook : An Illustrative Sketch (by Franz Boas)
Pathological Lying, Accusation, And Swin... (by Healy, William)
Aboriginal American Weaving (by Kissell, Mary Lois)
The Study of Man: An Introduction (by Linton, Ralph)

Top 100 books on Biographies

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, V... (by Twain, Mark)
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Scul... Volume Vol. 10
My First Summer in the Sierra (by Muir, John)
The Life of Charles Dickens (by Forster, John)
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Scul... Volume Vol. 7
The Celtic Twilight (by Yeats, William Butler)
The Confessions of St. Augustine (by Augustine, Saint)
Great Astronomers (by Ball, R. S.)
Queen Victoria, A Biography (by Lee, Sidney, Sir)
Les Grotesques de la Musique
Beethoven : The Man and the Artist, As R... (by Beethoven, Ludwig Van)
Alexander the Great (by Jacob Abbott)
Roughing It (by Twain, Mark)
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Volume ... (by Grant, Ulysses Sherman)
Autobiography (by Benjamin Franklin)

Top 100 books on History of India

The Awakening of India (by Mackenzie, De Witt)
Indian Narional Evolution. (by Amvika Charan Mazumdar.)
Out of India : things I saw, and failed ... (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Sketches of a Soldier's Life in India (by Quinney, Thomas)
Copies of the Several Testimonials Trans... (by East India Company)
The Spiritual Interpretation of History (by Mathews, Shailer)
Memoirs of India: Comprising a Brief Gro... (by Wallace, Robert Grenville)
A Century of Indian Epigrams : Chiefly f... (by Bhartrhari)
A Short History of the Fatimid Khalifate (by De Lacy D'Oleary)
Annals of India for the Year 1848; An Ou... (by Buist, George)
Clough, Kingdom-Builder in South India (by Hines, Herbert Waldo)
India Old and New (by Sir Valentine Chirol)
The Kipling Index : Being a Guide to the... (by Saxton, Eugene Francis)
Agnes, The Indian Captive. A Poem, In Fo... (by Mitford, John)
Stephen Hislop : Pioneer Missionary & Na... (by Smith, George)

Top 100 books on Philosophy

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic... (by Kant, Immanuel)
The Dhammapada, the Sutta-nipâta, Score ... Volume Vol. X (by Müller, F., Max)
Sidelights on Relativity (by Einstein, Albert)
Meditations on First Philosophy (by Descartes, Rene)
An Attic Philosopher in Paris; Or, A Pee... (by Émile Souvestre)
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (by Hume, David)
The essay on self-reliance (by Emerson, Ralph Waldo)
The Principles of Philosophy (by Descartes, René)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Consolation of Philosophy, The (by Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus)
Art of War, The (version 2) (by Sun Tzu)
On the Laws (by Cicero, Marcus Tullius)
Symposium, The (by Plato)
Critique of Practical Reason, The (by Kant, Immanuel)
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (by John Locke)

Top 100 books on Sociology

The Negro in Chicago : a study of race r... (by Chicago Commission on Race Relations)
Towards the Great Peace (by Cram, Ralph Adams)
The Biology, Physiology and Sociology of... (by Winfield Scott Hall)
The Theory of the Leisure Class (by Veblen, Thorstein)
The Challenge of the Country: A Study of... (by George Walter Fiske, Young Mens Christian Associat...)
Sociology and Modern Social Problems (by Ellwood, Charles Abram)
The Girl in Her Teens (by Slattery, Margaret)
What the Mother of a Deaf Child Ought to... (by Wright, John Dutton)
Ancient Society : Or, Researches in the ... (by Morgan, Lewis Henry)
Social Control; A Survey of the Foundati... (by Ross, Edward Alsworth)
Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (by Bimala Charan Law)
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to th... (by George Henry Napheys)
Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs : Thr... (by John Davenport)
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonapar... (by Marx, Karl)
Human Nature and the Social Order (by Cooley, Charles Horton)

Top 100 books on Economics

The Jews and Modern Capitalism (by Werner Sombert)
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Soul of Man under Socialism (by Oscar Wilde)
An Essay on the Principle of Population (by Malthus, Thomas)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
Wage-Labor and Capital (by Marx, Karl)
In Praise of Poverty
What Is Property (by Proudhon, Pierre Joseph)
On the Principles of Political Economy, ... (by David Ricardo)
The State and Revolution (by Lenin, V. I.)
Nature and Progress of Rent (by Malthus, Thomas)
The Development of Socialism from Utopia... (by Friedrich Engels)
Annie Besant : An Autobiography (by Annie Wood Besant)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)

Top 100 books on Law

The Wealth of Nations (by Adam Smith)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Laws of Plato; (by Plato)
The Federalist Papers (by Hamilton, Alexander)
On Liberty (by Mill, John Stuart)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Federal Civil Rights Enforcement Effort;... Volume Year 1970 (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
Economic Sophisms (by Bastiat, Frédéric)
The United States' Constitution (by Fathers, Founding)
Fulfilling the Letter and Spirit of the ... (by United States Commission On Civil Rights)
Leviathan (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Introduction to Roman Law (by Hadley, James)
Documents on the League of Nations (by League of Nations. Covenant)
Politics (by Aristotle)
Bartleby the Scrivener (by Melville, Herman)