Ideas Wanted for "World Political Thought"

Yale University Press is exploring the possibility of a series called “World Political Thought,” the goal being to publish authoritative English-language editions of important works from the many traditions of political thinking outside of the Euro-American traditions that dominate political theory/political philosophy today. I’m serving as editor for the East Asian part of this project. One early step that we are considering is starting with low-hanging fruit: texts that exist already in obscure and/or out-of-print editions (maybe appended to someone’s dissertation?) that could be spruced up and republished, in order to get the series off the ground rapidly. (The more substantial project of commissioning translations of other texts will also get going, and proceed simultaneously.) Anyone have suggestions? For the time being, I’m mainly interested in the “low-hanging fruit,” but any and all ideas are welcome.

3 thoughts on “Ideas Wanted for "World Political Thought"

  1. Terrific news and a great opportunity, Steve!

    Someone at Michigan published a nice translation of the Guiguzi as a dissertation. I’m not sure if this is the sort of thing you had in mind, but I thought I’d mention it.

    Broschart, Michael. 1985. Guiguzi: A textual Study and Translation. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan).

    I’ll see if I can think of any others.

  2. Oops. Wrong university. Here’s the full (and hopefully more accurate) bibliographic information:

    Broschat, Michael R. 1985. Guiguzi: A Textual Study and Translation. Ph.D. University of Washington.

  3. Here is a book that could be spruced up easily (assuming you can find it):

    Williamson, R. Wang An-shih, Life and Writings. (London: Arthur Probsthain). 1935

    Also, Duyvendak’s 1928 translation of The Book of Lord Shang is also overdue for a re-haul.

    Selections from the Zhan Guo Ce, though arguably works of history, not political philosophy, would be more than welcome as well.

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