The central theme of this text is that Western political philosophy is a coherent tradition dominated by an agreement that the nature of man should serve as the standard for evaluating political structures and actions. The author recognizes that Western political philosophers are original thinkers whose diverse theories often contradict each other, and that there are valid distinctions between early and modern political theories. However, the book clearly demonstrates that an analysis of differences must be followed by a synthesis and that these apparent disparities must be transcended for understand the continuity of Western political thought. In explicating this tradition, the authors defines and interprets the fundamental areas of agreement as well as disagreement. While acknowledging the diversity of political theories, the book focuses on the principles of the mainstream, because they dominated the tradition, fix its direction, shape its character and provide the coherence which would otherwise be missed.