John Pocock is arguably the most original and imaginative historian of ideas of modern times. Over the past half century he has created an audience for his work which is truly global, and he has marked the way in which the history of political thought is studied as deeply and personally as any historian of the period. The essays in this major new collection are selected from a lifetime of thinking about political thought, and how we should study it in history. What in fact does it mean to write the history of a political society, and what kind of political thought is this? Professor Pocock emphasises both the theory and practice of political thought considered as action in history, and the political theory of historiography considered as a form of political thought. Together these essays constitute a collection that any serious student of politics and intellectual history needs to possess.

The history of political thought : a methodological inquiry

Working on ideas in time

Verbalizing a political act : towards a politics of speech

Political ideas as historical events : political philosophers as historical actors

The reconstruction of discourse : towards the historiography of political thought

The concept of a language and the métier d'historien : some considerations on practice

Texts as events : reflections on the history of political thought

Quentin Skinner : the history of politics and the politics of history

The origins of study of the past : a comparative approach

Time, institutions and action : an essay on traditions and their understanding

The historian as political actor in polity, society and academy

The politics of history : the subaltern and the subversive

The politics of historiography.