This book relates Hegel to preceding and succeeding political philosophers. The Hegelian notion of the interdependence of political philosophy and its history is demonstrated by the links established between Hegel and his predecessors and successors. Hegel's political theory is illuminated by essays showing its critical assimilation of Plato and Hobbes, and by studies reviewing subsequent critiques of its standpoint by Stirner, Marx and Collingwood. The relevance of Hegel to contemporary political philosophy is highlighted in essays which compare Hegel to Lyotard and Rawls.

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Plato and Hegel: Reason, Redemption and Political Construction Hegel's Plato: The Owl of Minerva, Political Philosophy and History Hobbes, Hegel and the Modern Self Stirner's Critique of Hegel: Geist and the Egoistic Exorcist The German Ideology , Stirner and Hegel: The Theory of History and the History of Theory Good and Bad Infinites in Hegel and Marx New Leviathans for Old: Collingwood's Hobbes and the Spirit of Hegel Lyotard's Hegel and the Dialectic of Modernity Rawls and Hegel: The Reasonable and the Rational in Theory and Practice Conclusion: Politics, Philosophy and Critique Index

Gary K. Browning is Professor of Politics at Oxford Brookes University.