For students, Portis (Texas A&M U.) provides a text that aims to highlight the importance of the classics to political science. Each chapter presents a political theory derived from the work of a classical political thinker, organized in the same way with sections on historical context, human nature and rational motivation, the motivational basis of social solidarity, the function and organization of authority, general theory of political change and stability, the theorist's political motivation, and a brief guide to their literature. Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Marx, and Weber (new to this edition) are the theorists discussed. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)