I would be remiss to move on in my writings here were I not to first take time to review the book that has started me off on my PhD journey: Carnes Lord’s translation of Aristotle’s Politics.
I was first introduced to the seminal work in my discipline in the fall of Junior year as an undergraduate. I was taking a class on premodern political philosophy and the Politics was the first book we read.
I was a poor student who bought the cheapest books I could off of Amazon so I ended up with a yellowed Penguin Classics paperback copy.
Aristotle was interesting, but largely failed to make an impression. The binding was falling apart, the print was small, and I had a full class load. It was a book I wanted to hurry to finish because it was not enjoyable to look at and read.
Lesson to be learned: put money into getting a good, new edition of a book that is considered essential, it will make you want to read it.
Fast forward to the present and I can honestly say I have become an Aristotle fan, and it’s largely because of the readability of Carnes Lord’s fantastic translation of this classic work.
Two for the price of one.
Indeed, you get two parallel works to read here.
First, you get the text of Aristotle’s classic itself, rendered in very readable modern English, and organized into books, chapters, and paragraphs that make it very easy to navigate.
Second, there’s the introduction, notes and glossary by the translator. Carnes Lord is a scholar of exceptional ability as he walks the reader through the intricacies of the old philosopher. The introduction (which I need to go back and reread due to lack of coverage) does an excellent job at setting the stage for the reader of Aristotle’s world and context, in addition to introducing the main themes of the work.
And I have never read footnotes with closer attention than with this work. Aristotle makes several references to obscure figures and historical events of his day that none but the most well versed of classicists can understand. Lord is such a classicist, and his footnotes provide such clear explanation of Aristotle’s citations that I felt on numerous occasions that I was getting a secondary education in ancient Greek history and culture.
Free is rarely best.
The book did not just starkly contrast with my first experience of reading the Politics, but it’s utility was also driven home when I forgot to bring it to class a couple weeks ago.
I had my iPad with me, so I quickly opened iBooks and downloaded a free version of the book so I could follow along.
It was awful.
I felt like I was trying to follow someone reading an updated Bible while looking at King James text. I didn’t forget my book the following week.
Real books still matter.
In an era of free ebooks, paperbacks, and used books galore, it is very tempting for cash strapped students to not make the money investment in books when they can be had for so much less. However, this runs the risk of making crucial elements of your education less accessible to yourself. It’s cutting off your nose to spite your academic face.
So if you’re looking for a quality translation of Aristotle’s exceptional work, get the Lord translation, you won’t be disappointed.