Faith and the Philosophy of History

This book collects works by the late Professor Martin Wight (1913-1972), an historian and scholar of international relations.

Wight conducted research on many topics, including British colonial history, European studies, international institutions, and the history of states-systems. He is nonetheless best known for his lectures about the political philosophy of international relations at the London School of Economics (1949-1961) and the University of Sussex (1961-1972). He is widely regarded as an intellectual ancestor and pathbreaker of the ’English School’ of international relations, even though this term only gained currency nine years after his death. While there is no generally accepted definition of the ’English School’, it is usually construed as signifying an approach to the study of international relations more rooted in historical and humanistic learning than in the social sciences. Wight’s achievements are consistent with this broad definition.

This volume draws together a number of Wight’s published works as well as many of his previously unpublished, obscurely published, and anonymous writings about faith and the philosophy of history. Owing to his premature death at the age of 58, he was unable to complete several works in progress, partly because his perfectionism led him to refrain from publishing many of them.

Martin Wight, Former Dean of the School of European Studies and a Professor of History, University of Sussex

Martin Wight was one of the most important twentieth century British scholars of International Relations. He taught at the London School of Economics (1949-1961) and the University of Sussex (1961-1972), where he served as the founding Dean of the School of European Studies. Wight is often associated with the British Committee on the Theory of International Politics and the so-called English School of International Relations.

Dr. David S. Yost is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. His books have been published by Harvard University Press, the United States Institute of Peace, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has held fellowships from Fulbright, NATO, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the United States Institute of Peace, and he was a senior research fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome in 2004-2007. He earned a Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Southern California.