An excellent reference for students or the interested lay person, Bowle writes with confidence and great skill, excellent research and filed with interesting titbits which make this book easy enough to read. I would not hesitate to recommend Western Political Thought. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

This is a truly magnificent book that should be carefully read by every serious scholar! This book's lone shortcoming is that it was written in 1947, so it does not cover the past 70 years of political thought otherwise, it is an excellent read. Get a copy as soon as it is released and enjoy a marvelous survey of Western political thought from the Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations (circa 3,500 BC) up until WWII. It can be a challenging read, but you will find that "Western Political Thought" is very difficult to put down.