Masters of Political Thought marks a departure from current practice. For undergraduates the medium of instruction in political theory has too often been the comprehensive and encyclopedia text-book. The writers are catalogued and their doctrines summarized, sometimes upon the basis of other and more specialized summaries and not upon the basis of the original works. While the text-book may be indispensable for certain purpose, anything like exclusive dependence upon it inculcates superficiality.