A History of Political Experience
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885106067291 |
| Date | 01 October 2006 |
| Published date | 01 October 2006 |
| Author | Leslie Marsh |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A History of Political Experience
Leslie Marsh University of Sussex
Michael Oakeshott Lectures in the History of Political Thought. Exeter: Imprint Academic,
2006.
This book survives superficial but fails deeper scrutiny. A facile, undiscerning criticism of
Lectures in the History of Political Thought (LHPT) is that on Oakeshott’s own account these
are lectures on a non-subject: ‘I cannot detect anything which could properly correspond
to the expression “the history of political thought”’ (p. 32). This is an entirely typical
Oakeshottian swipe – elegant and oblique – at the title of the lecture course he inherited
from Harold Laski. If title and quotation sit awkwardly we should remember that
Oakeshott never prepared the text for publication – a fortiori he did not prepare it for pub-
lication under this title. Moreover, for Oakeshott the compound notion of ‘political
thought’ does not denote much either (pp. 33–4). A positive characterization can, however,
be made for the notion of ‘political experience’ or ‘intellectual organization’ (p. 42), a par-
ticular context-bound agglomeration ‘of sentiments, beliefs, habits of thought, aspirations
and ideas’ (pp. 43, 45, 391, 393). This notion, with its enumeration and specification into
Greek, Roman, medieval and modern political experience, structures the 32 lectures that
comprise the book. Oakeshott’s notion of political experience has deep affinities (at least)
with the style of political analysis followed by the Cambridge classicist, F.E. Adcock, in
Roman Political Ideas and Practice (1964), a text surely not fortuitously included in the course
reading-list for the original lectures.
Within the discussion of the four major (Western) political experiences, a central nuc-
leus can be discerned in the ‘political experience’ lectures (lectures 2, 3, 11, 12, 16 and
23–32). These 15 lectures have philosophical continuity with the most important essay of
all – the introduction. My focus is thus on these 16 lectures. (Other reviewers will no doubt
hone in on one or more of the political epochs; perhaps particular thinkers; or consider the
evolution of particular concepts such as law, authority or state.)
Disambiguating Political Thought
Though Oakeshott does not use this terminology, his intention is clear – one needs to sub-
ject to scrutiny the creeping promiscuity of the concept ‘political thought’. For Oakeshott
504
review article
Contact address: Leslie Marsh, Centre for Research in Cognitive Science, University of
Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.
Email: l.marsh@sussex.ac.uk
EJPT
European Journal
of Political Theory
© SAGE Publications Ltd,
London, Thousand Oaks
and New Delhi
issn 1474-8851, 5(4)504–510
[DOI: 10.1177/1474885106067291]
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