Bernard Crick

The distinguished Professor of Politics and self proclaimed polemicist Sir Bernard Crick taught at The University of Sheffield from 1965 until 1971.

During the 1980s, Crick was an advisor to the Labour party leader, Neil Kinnock. When Labour came to power in 1997, Crick was appointed by his former student David Blunkett to head up an advisory group on citizenship education.

Throughout his illustrious career, Crick was awarded four honorary doctorates and knighted in 2001.

First published in 1962, In Defence of Politics has been in print for over 40 years.

In this illuminating celebration of the political world, Bernard Crick asserts that politics, with its compromises and power struggles, remains the only tested alternative to government by coercion, making both freedom and order possible in heterogeneous societies.

Crick argues that politics could only exist in societies in which the facts of diversity of opinions and interests were accepted as permanent and legitimate.

Politics, according to Crick, it by its nature messy and complex and requires some tolerance of differing truths and a recognition that government is best conducted amid the open canvassing of rival interests.

Watch the video below to hear from some of those who have been inspired by In Defence of Politics.

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The collection currently consists of over 500 books.

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