How to Think About Politics - A Guide in Five Parts

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by politics. Rather than getting caught up in the swirl of day-to-day politics, Peter Allen suggests that we return to the fundamentals and cultivate a set of tools and perspectives to help us interpret events. This book is his concise and accessible guide on how to do so. Mixing contemporary political science research with real-life examples, the book focuses on five ideas that can help readers to understand political events in a new way. A surprising discussion of key political ideas, this book offers new tools for thinking about politics and asking political questions to help readers interrogate their own political choices.

List of contents

• Acknowledgements


• Introduction: Breathe the Air


• Chapter 1: Think About Power


• Chapter 2: Think About Knowledge


• Chapter 3: Think About Presence


• Chapter 4: Think About What You Want


• Chapter 5: Think About Possibility


• Thinking About Politics in the Polycrisis


• Notes


• Index

About the author

Peter Allen is Professor of Politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses on political representation and political behaviour. His work has been funded by the ESRC, AHRC, and British Academy and he was a 2017 AHRC IPS Fellow at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. His first book The Political Class was published by Oxford University Press in April 2018.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Allen, Peter (Professor of Politics Allen
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 27.03.2025
• EAN: 9780197679364
• ISBN: 978-0-19-767936-4
• No. of pages: 192
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > General, dictionaries; Cultural Studies, PHILOSOPHY / Political, POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & political philosophy, Political science & theory, social and political philosophy, Political science and theory