Originally Posted by DeltaboundRedux

Fascinating. This was a very odd response to a one off book rec.

You just copy/pasted a laundry list of academic achievements and awards from some very impressive universities, but somehow that makes him unqualified to write a book about the genesis of political theory from a specific school of thought that's been evolving in Europe for the past 300 years (at least)?

If you want an excellent Cliff Notes version of Mosca, Pareto, Schmitt, Jouvenel, Francis, etc, you'll find it here. He's an excellent writer and summarizer, which is what you'd expect from someone with those credentials. It might even stimulate interest to read primary sources (it did for me), which is it's intent. Not to "give you political advice."

I'd be curious to know just who you'd think was a good teacher of the mechanics of actual politics would be?

Not original sources, please. No one here is going to read Montesquieu, Gibbon, Plato, Locke, or even just your basic Alexis de Tocqueville.

Who? I'm genuinely curious.