Delivered during the years of heightened national security of World War II these lectures present Anderson's views on the major questions in political theory in relation to the major influences upon his own early education: modern Idealism and Marxism.

In place of a simplistic contrast between individual and state Anderson insisted upon the complex interplay of movements, institutions and traditions. His modernist, realist project drew upon the major theorists of conflict, struggle and cyclic historical movement: Heraclitus, Vico and Sorel.