The Paths Of History
This is a broad and ambitious study of the entire history of humanity which takes as its point of departure Marx’s theory of social evolution. However, Professor Diakonoff’s theory of world history differs from Marx’s in a number of ways. Firstly he has expanded Marx’s five stages of development to eight. Secondly he denies that social evolution necessarily implies progress and shows how ‘each progress is simultaneously a regress’, and thirdly he demonstrates that the transition from one stage to another is not necessarily marked by social conflict and that sometimes this is achieved peacefully and gracefully. As the book moves through these various stages, the reader is drawn into a remarkable and thought-provoking study of the process of the history of the human race which focuses on the wide range of factors (economic, social, military-technological, and socio-pyschological) which have influenced our development from palaeolithic times to the present day.

• Short, concise analysis of the development of mankind from palaeolithic times to the present day • Examines all aspects of our development (e.g. social, political, economic, socio-psychological, technological, ethical) • Bold in coverage with echoes of Marx, Toynbee and other seminal world-historical authors

The American Language Of Rights
Richard A. Primus examines three crucial periods in American history (the late eighteenth century, the civil war and the 1950s and 1960s) in order to demonstrate how the conceptions of rights prevailing at each of these times grew out of reactions to contemporary social and political crises. His innovative approach sees rights language as grounded more in opposition to concrete social and political practices, than in the universalistic paradigms presented by many political philosophers. This study demonstrates the potency of the language of rights throughout American history, and looks for the first time at the impact of modern totalitarianism (in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union) on American conceptions of rights. The American Language of Rights is a major contribution to contemporary political theory, of interest to scholars and students in politics and government, constitutional law, and American history.

• Combines history, law, political theory and philosophy of language • Defends the language of rights, in part using a new examination of totalitarianism • Written by a Supreme Court clerk and ex-Rhodes scholar