Michael Freeden is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Nottingham and Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Oxford. His books include The New Liberalism: An Ideology of Social Reform (Oxford, 1978); Liberalism Divided: A Study in British Political Thought 1914-1939 (Oxford, 1986); Rights (Milton Keynes, 1991); Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach (Oxford, 1996); Ideology: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2003); Liberal Languages: Ideological Imaginations and 20th Century Progressive Thought (Princeton, 2005); The Meaning of Ideology: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives (ed.) (London, 2007). He is the founder-editor of the Journal of Political Ideologies. In 2012 he was awarded the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies by the UK Political Studies Association.

"This is undoubtedly one of the most unusual books written by a leading political theorist in the last few years. The core ambitions of this highly innovative work are to establish the significance of the innumerable thought-practices that figure within the complex patterns of everyday political thinking, and to ask why it is that these are routinely ignored or overlooked by political theorists. It is to the author's considerable credit that he makes his heterodox case in a carefully reasoned and intellectually sophisticated fashion." -Michael Kenny, Queen Mary University of London, Political Studies Review

"In a highly erudite and comprehensive manner, the prominent British political theorist Freeden (Univ. of Nottingham) raises fundamental questions about how students of politics and others engage in political thinking." -H. L. Cheek Jr., East Georgia State College, CHOICE

"Freedens tour of the terrain of political decision-making creates a rich context for common notions, such as Max Webers monopoly of legitimate force. Similarly Freeden provides a stimulating analysis of rights claims as conversation stoppers, in a subsection of chapter 4: Rights: The Ranking Device Par Excellence ... in shedding new light on how different conceptualizations of political concepts fit together in diverse overall approaches to thinking politically, Freeden makes a valuable contribution." -George Klosko, University of Virginia, The Review of Politics

"This volume is an important and welcome intervention in the conversations of political theory. Michael Freeden advances a dense, complex, and provocative theoretical argument as well as a research agenda, which deserve wide attention and critical discussion among both political theorists and political scientists ... It is unfortunate that most contemporary political theorists are not, by either inclination or training, prepared to undertake the kind of study that Freeden has both advocated and personified and to confront the issues that his work raises ... Freedens work makes a strong case for the claim that an important first step is to theoretically engage and study the kind of thinking that actually takes place in politics." -John G. Gunnell, European Journal of Political Theory