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The Book of Samuel is universally acknowledged as one of the supreme achievements of biblical literature. Yet the book´s anonymous author was more than an inspired storyteller. The author was also an uncannily astute observer of political life and the moral compromises and contradictions that the struggle for power inevitably entails. The Beginning of Politics mines the story of Israel´s first two kings to unearth a natural history of power, providing a forceful new reading of what is arguably the first and greatest work of Western political thought. The Beginning of Politics is a timely meditation on the dark side of sovereign power and the enduring dilemmas of statecraft.

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"For Halbertal and Holmes, the author of Samuel is a writer of singular political insight, a brilliant student of politics, and indeed, a political theorist avant la lettre. This is a wonderful discovery. The Beginning of Politics is a work of deep and original scholarship." - Michael Walzer, author of In God´s Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible

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Moshe Halbertal is the Gruss Professor of Law at New York University, the John and Golda Cohen Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and professor of law at IDC Herzliya in Israel. His books include Maimonides: Life and Thought (Princeton), which won the National Jewish Book Award. Stephen Holmes is the Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law at New York University. His books include The Matador´s Cape: America´s Reckless Response to Terror.

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