This book may be read from two complementary and enlightening perspectives: as a history of political thought centered on the role played by fear in group formation, and as a theoretical treatise on “negative association,” that is, collective action based on a principle of identification in opposition to others. Both perspectives sustain each other. The first draws attention to a rich and insightful reinterpretation of classical and lesser-known texts. The peculiarity of this history of political thought is that it records not inflection points but continuity and resilience. The second perspective is intended to bring about positive knowledge. This conflation of genres is an appealing facet of the book. In tracing a continuity of thought, Ioannis Evrigenis purports to demonstrate the validity of a theoretical claim about the centrality of negative association. By the same token, the historical exposé lays bare the set of premises that sustains the claim.
John C. Olin, ed. Interpreting Thomas More’s Utopia. New York: Fordham University Press, 1989. Pp. xiii + 98.George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams, eds. Utopia. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp. xxxv + 137