Political Influence

This book explores the meaning of 'influence', which has played a central role in the formation of the canon, or tradition, of Western political thought. Via a critical overview of the relative fortunes of influence studies in the history of political thought, literary theory, and – at times – the history of art and poetry, it is possible to identify a dominant theory of the term. Nietzschean and ‘emanational’ in nature, thanks largely to the work of Harold Bloom, this particular theory views influence as mere power and represents a broadly accepted meaning in twentieth century thought.