Samples of Oakeshott

Free samples of Oakeshott’s writing can be obtained from this site as well as a variety of other places on the web. Below is a list of the ones we know about (located at this site unless otherwise specified).

Pre-WWII

• John Locke (1932, PDF format)
• Experience and its Modes (1933):
  • the complete text (external site)
  • Chapter. 3, Historical Experience (PDF format)
• History and the Social Sciences (1936, PDF format)
• Dr. Leo Strauss on Hobbes (1937, external site) reprinted in Hobbes on Civil Association (2000, external site)

1940s

• Leviathan: A Myth (1947, external site) reprinted in Hobbes on Civil Association (2000, external site)
• Oakeshott’s correspondence with Karl Popper (1948, PDF format)
• The Philosophy of History (1948 BBC radio broadcast). Available in the following formats:
  • transcript (PDF format)
  • First lines in .mp3 format (MP3 format, 570 Kb)
  • First lines in .wav format (WAV format, 6.12 Mb)
  • Later lines in .mp3 format (MP3 format, 719 Kb)
  • Later lines in .wav format (WAVE format, 7.73 Mb)
  • Full broadcast (MP3 format, 11.8 Mb)

1960s-70s

• The Moral Life in the Writings of Thomas Hobbes (1960, external site) reprinted in Hobbes on Civil Association (2000, external site)
• Oakeshott’s response (1962, PDF format) to Richard Crossman’s review (1962, PDF format) of Oakeshott’s book Rationalism in Politics (1962)
• Oakeshott’s Letter to John Watkins about Thomas Hobbes (1963, PDF format) published in Political Theory with a Preface by Patrick Riley (2001, PDF format)
• Lectures in the History of Political Thought (1968-69). Samples available:
  • Lecture 1: Introduction (PDF format)
  • Lecture 23: The Character of a Modern European State (PDF format, external site)
• Work and Play (1960s?, external site) first published in First Things (1995)
• What is Political Theory? (1973, PDF format) published in What is History? and other Essays (2004)
• On Human Conduct, Ch. 1, On the Theoretical Understanding of Human Conduct (1975, PDF format)
• Introduction to Leviathan (1975 version, external site) reprinted in Hobbes on Civil Association (2000, external site)