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Beginning with the new worlds of the Renaissance and the Reformation, this book traces the growth of liberal doctrine through the advent of the French Revolution. It shows the relationship of liberalism to the emerging economic system of capitalism, and the impact of this relationship upon science, ... More

Laski’s magnum opus, this volume outlines the history and functions of state institutions which (in the author’s view) are desirable for the effective functioning of a democracy. Topics discussed include: The necessity of government; state and society; rights and power; liberty and equality; propert... More

This book, originally published in 1952, unfinished and perhaps imperfect, is the last book of one of the most acute political thinkers of the twentieth century. Laski’s earlier optimism about a swing to the Left was beginning to be reversed, and in this volume he saw the defects of his previous opt... More

This volume distils the themes expounded in A Grammar of Politics for the non-specialist reader. It is the best outline of Laski’s views in his transitional period.... More

This is Laski’s most important book after A Grammar of Politics. It discusses, on a grand scale, every aspect of American public life. Laski surveys American traditions and the American spirit, political institutions, the entire educational, religious, economic and social scene, America as a world p... More

To mark the centenary of its first publication in 1848, the Labour Party issued this important special edition of the Communist Manifesto. In his (then) new historical introduction, Harold Laski discussed the authors of the Manifesto, their background and the development of their ideas. He outlined ... More

As a sequel to Studies in the Problem of Sovereignty, this volume, originally published in 1919, expands Laski’s pluralist doctrine of the state, (using France as its reference) but covers rather broader ground, since its main object is to insist that the problem of sovereignty is only a special cas... More

First Published in 1950, Trade Unions in the New Society examines the changing significance of trade unionism and the place they occupy in the democratic world. Harold J. Laski contrasts their function in a capitalist or socialist society with what it became under Russian totalitarianism. This book ... More

A valuable piece of intellectual history, readable in its own terms, this volume, beginning with the Renaissance and the Reformation, traces the growth of Liberal doctrine until the advent of the French Revolution. It shows the relation of Liberalism to the new economic system, and the impact of thi... More

Updated to take into account the post-war political landscape, this book, consisting of some undelivered lectures originally dating from 1929, discusses the meaning and place of liberty and freedom in a global post-war context.... More

In this tract, Laski discusses the British case for the destruction of Hitler from the angle of the university student, especially from America, who had doubts about the complexities of the situation. He illustrates why all parties in Britain felt that future freedom of intelligence depended on vict... More

This volume bases a clear and unbiased account of Communist philosophy on the Marxian Materialist Concept of History and Marxian Theory of Value. The spear-head of Marxism is its doctrine of class-struggle and from this Laski sets out on in his exposition of the Communist attitude. Although first p... More

An excellent and entertaining essayist, Laski’s volume deals with the issues of politics and law in Europe and American during the 1920s and 30s. It is unified by the concpetion of democracy as a society of equals sharing in a common good.  ... More

This volume is an expanded version of the Weil lectures given at the University of North Carolina in 1931 and is one of the two texts of Laski’s quasi Marxist period.... More

This is Laski’s most important book after A Grammar of Politics. It discusses, on a grand scale, every aspect of American public life. Laski surveys American traditions and the American spirit, political institutions, the entire educational, religious, economic and social scene, America as a world p... More

This volume, originally published in 1938 can be read by anyone with an interest in the evolution of the institution of government in England and how the workings of some parts of it particularly relate to the problems of the first half of the twentieth century.  ... More

This influential study, originally published in 1921, develops aspects of Laski's theory of the state, ideas he introduced in his first important publication, Authority in the Modern State (1919). According to Laski, the state is not a supreme entity; it is one association among many that must compe... More

An influential study of political power, originally published in 1917. Laski's theoretical ideas are elaborated through examples drawn from political and religious movements, such as the Catholic Revival and the creation of the German Empire. He concludes that the state is not a supreme entity; it i... More

This work remains of interest to anyone concerned with Britain’s political institutions and how they might be reformed. Laski was strongly in favour of utilising Britain’s capacity for decisive government to drive through great social reforms. He was still confident that there was a majority will fo... More

Written two years after the commencement of the Second World War, the chapters in this book succinctly put forward the case for reorganizing the foundations of the social order, by rejecting capitalism and historical equilibrium, both in Europe and further afield in the British Empire, in favour of ... More

This book, first published in 1942, covers the whole field of wartime life and organization. Is the private ownership and control of industry holding up production? Are the burdens of war being shared equally by the whole community? How can individual liberty be reconciled with maximum efficiency? A... More