A review by holdenn93
The Republic by Plato

5.0

Plato basically takes on his mentor Socrates as the narrator and it's a book long conversation (or is it a series of conversations? I couldn't find any separation) with a bunch of people. He runs through different types of societies, how they transform from one to another, and some ideas on the nature of tyrants and philosopher kings as diametrically opposing styles of rulership. He also ties in the nature of happiness with these qualities, and goes into some outdated ideas about a geocentric model of the universe with souls and the heavens and planets and so forth -- it kinda lost me here. All this unfolds while the guys interject with some "uh-huh" "I agree" and "you're absolutely right" to everything he says. While some of the philosophical parts went over my head a bit, I really liked the ancient Greek interpretations of the four types of societies and how they transform, develop and adapt. It's cool to get in the head of a dude from that long ago, talking about a civilisation so different to ours.