The Routledge Guides to the Great Books
About the Book Series
The Routledge Guides to the Great Books provide ideal introductions to the texts which have shaped Western Civilization. The Guidebooks explore the arguments and ideas contained in the most influential works from some of the most brilliant thinkers who have ever lived, from Aristotle to Marx and Newton to Wollstonecraft. Each Guidebook opens with a short introduction to the author of the great book and the context within which they were working and concludes with an examination of the lasting significance of the book. The Routledge Guides to the Great Books will therefore provide students everywhere with complete introductions to the most significant books of all time.
The Routledge Guidebook to Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment
1st Edition
By Espen Hammer, Fred Rush
October 27, 2025
Composed whilst in exile in the United States during the Second World War, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment is the most famous and influential text of the Frankfurt School. A theoretical exploration of history, modernity, and culture, its core warning of ...
The Routledge Guidebook to Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature
1st Edition
By P. J. E. Kail
April 24, 2025
David Hume is widely acknowledged as the greatest philosopher to have written in the English language. His 1739/40 A Treatise of Human Nature is commonly regarded as his masterpiece. It is a profound work of great ambition, seeking to reorient philosophy by establishing a ‘science of human nature’....
The Routledge Guidebook to Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra
1st Edition
By Matthew Meyer
September 12, 2024
The Routledge Guidebook to Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra is an engaging introduction to this rich and provocative philosophical text. Nietzsche is arguably one of the most influential and yet least understood philosophers of the nineteenth century. The same can be said of his ...
The Routledge Guidebook to Moore's Principia Ethica
1st Edition
By Susana Nuccetelli
November 17, 2021
G.E. Moore’s Principia Ethica is a landmark publication in twentieth-century moral philosophy. Through focusing on the origin and evolution of his main doctrines, this guidebook makes it clear that Moore was an innovator whose provocative take on traditional philosophical problems ignited heated ...
The Routledge Guidebook to Paine's Rights of Man
1st Edition
By Frances Chiu
May 05, 2020
Upon publication in 1791-92, the two parts of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man proved to be both immensely popular and highly controversial. An immediate bestseller, it not only defended the French revolution but also challenged current laws, customs, and government. The Routledge Guidebook to Paine’s...
The Routledge Guidebook to Smith's Wealth of Nations
1st Edition
By Maria Pia Paganelli
December 17, 2019
Adam Smith (1723–1790) is famous around the world as the founding father of economics, and his ideas are regularly quoted and invoked by politicians, business leaders, economists, and philosophers. However, considering his fame, few people have actually read the whole of his magnum opus The Wealth ...
The Routledge Guidebook to Berkeley’s Three Dialogues
1st Edition
By Stefan Storrie
December 13, 2018
The Routledge Guidebook to Berkeley’s Three Dialogues is an engaging introduction to the last of a trio of works that cemented Berkeley’s position as one of the truly great philosophers of the western canon. Berkeley’s distinctive idealist philosophy has been a challenge and inspiration for ...
The Routledge Guidebook to James’s Principles of Psychology
1st Edition
By David Leary
January 25, 2018
The Routledge Guidebook to James’s Principles of Psychology is an engaging and accessible introduction to a monumental text that has influenced the development of both psychological science and philosophical pragmatism in important and lasting ways. Written for readers approaching William ...
The Routledge Guidebook to The New Testament
1st Edition
By Patrick Gray
March 16, 2017
As part of the Christian canon of scripture, the New Testament is one of the most influential works in history. Its impact can be seen in many different fields, but without an awareness of the historical, cultural, social, and intellectual context of early Christianity, it can be difficult for ...
The Routledge Guidebook to Foucault's The History of Sexuality
1st Edition
By Chloe Taylor
November 17, 2016
Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality is one of the most influential philosophical works of the twentieth century and has been instrumental in shaping the study of Gender, Feminist Theory and Queer Theory. But Foucault’s writing can be a difficult book to grasp as Foucault assumes a ...
The Routledge Guidebook to Augustine's Confessions
1st Edition
By Catherine Conybeare
June 27, 2016
Augustine’s Confessions is one of the most significant works of Western culture. Cast as a long, impassioned conversation with God, it is intertwined with passages of life-narrative and with key theological and philosophical insights. It is enduringly popular, and justly so. The Routledge Guidebook...
The Routledge Guidebook to Machiavelli's The Prince
1st Edition
By John T. Scott
April 05, 2016
Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince is one of the most influential works in the history of political thought and the adjective Machiavellian is well-known and perhaps even over-used. So why does the meaning of the text continue to be debated to the present day? And how does a contemporary reader get ...