Queried here, I will simplify and make it books, period, but restrict it to fiction, not counting philosophy. My list of five:
1. Shakespeare’s Henriad, a no-brainer at #1, if you count it as more than one book it still should take up as many slots as it needs. Psychology is primary and stands above politics, and libertinism is by no means unrelated to power.
2. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, vanity, pride, and self-deception are the keys to understanding political behavior, plus Swift shows an understanding of "the rules of the game."
3. Montesquieu, Persian Letters, yikes, have you ever seen that Monty Python skit "Summarize Proust"?
4. Sophocles, Antigone, the claims of the family vs. the claims of the state continue to plague Iraq and many other places.
5. Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, the former is not just a good tale but also a profound comparative study of regimes, the latter is the brutal truths of war.
Interestingly none of these are proper novels. I read Kafka’s The Trial as more about theology than worldly affairs. As for politics as a profession, the source from The Economist recommends "Primary Colors", C.P. Snow’s "The Corridors of Power", and "All the King’s Men".
It is less fruitful and less fun to guess at the best novels about business and economics, perhaps because the relevant truths seem banal in a fictional context.
Joseph Conrad’s Under Western Eyes is a masterpiece in telling how power works among revolutionaries and idealists. Can´t be forgotten.
Les Misérables, Victor Hugo. About all kinds of justice, be it criminal, social, revenge. A long one to read, though.
I very much think _The Oresteia_ by Aeschylus is the best story about politics ever written.
1984?
A less serious possibility – not maybe in The Five Best, but still charming in its way: The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill.
I’d nominate “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis.
“The Last Hurrah” by Edwin O’Connor (no relation).
Forget novels. Iv’e learned more about politics from “The Wire” than any other piece of fiction.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0306414/
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren belongs on a list of antistate
novels.
1, Yes Dostoevsky “Demons”.
2.Nostromo. Joseph Conrad.
3.Fathers and sons. Turguenev.
4.Julius Caesar . Shakespeare.
5.Goetz von Berlinger. Goethe
The reason no one had mentioned Rand is that this was meant to be a list of _good_ novels about politics!
I would nominate George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series.
I would suggest the novels of George Orwell. Homage to Catalonia about the destructive civil war within the republican movement, and of course his great satires on the abuse of power in Animal Farm and 1984
“Antigone” is a great choice, but “Oedipus the King” would have been just as good. But arr_squared nails it: _The Oresteia_.
I’m struck by the absence of recent or American authors. May I suggest
“Echo House”, Ward Just.
“Lincoln”, Gore Vidal.
Not that they would make the top 5.
The Henry plays, YES, and why not Julius Caesar, or Richard III?
Finally, if you want to extend ‘politics’ back before there is a state as such, consider “Njal’s Saga”.
And yes, the Oresteia is incredibly profound, a work about the very origins of politics and the state.
Oh, c’mon! The Gay Place, by Billy Lee Brammer. Situated in Texas, of course.
I think that Megan Non-McArdle would get first prize in “Summarize Proust.” (Apologies in advance to Megan and non-Python fans!)
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