Political Philosophy Books recommendations

I’m currently writing my personal statement and also reading a couple books for it, I’m applying for Politics and IR and one History and Politics. Could anyone please recommend me some political theory or political philosophy books that I could read that would be good to include in my statement?

Reply 1

University of Kent Reps

Official Rep

Hi there,
I am a third-year Politics student at the University of Kent and I really recommend the "Very Short Introductions..." books by the Oxford University Press, they have loads on political philosophy and also the foundation's ideologies such as liberalism/socialism/feminism, as well as this they have ones on political structures on different countries which will come in handy if you were to study international relations, these are great to include on your personal statement because they aren't challenging to read and show that you have an introductory knowledge on loads of different aspects within Politics and IR. If you also wanted to include some other texts then I highly recommend "Chavs", or "The Establishment" by Owen Jones which goes into a lot of detail about the class system in the UK.
When you start your degree you'll most likely look at texts such as "The Prince" by Machiavelli and "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill, these texts are vital in understanding politics as it stands today, however, they are very challenging so I would recommend maybe mentioning them but there is no pressure to read them in full, maybe just some key chapters.
I hope that this helps,
-Bethany, UKC Rep

Reply 2

ManuelPearsonSG

It is not a very good idea to reference introductory texts such as 'very short introductions...' in your personal statement. They are good to read for yourself to get some background information, but a university will be distinctly unimpressed with it because it does not imply a developed interest in the subject and is far simpler than what you would be expected to read at university. So don't mention them in your PS.

It is better to find an aspect of politics that you are most interested in. For example. in my statement for PPE I referred to a book about the influence of demographic changes on politics. A specific text, not a vague introductory text, will impress.

Remember that it is not enough to say 'I read x, y and z'. You need to show an involvement in the book, and you ought to make criticisms of some of the authors' claims, and their methodology.

In reality, whatever book someone mentions here is unlikely to be right for you. The books you mention in your PS should be what interests you specifically. If loads of people read the same book as you for their PS, you won't stand out.