Our current political order is not only the result of social and political developments. It is significantly shaped by the thinking that comments on, critiques, and sometimes provokes these developments. In twelve portraits and eight miniatures, the philosopher Otfried Höffe presents the great political thinkers from antiquity to the 20th century. Despite the changes in political circumstances and the evolution of debates, many questions have remained the same, even if they are posed in a new context: How does a community function; what structures and hierarchies prevail within it? How does one acquire power; how is it maintained or overthrown? Under what conditions is political rule just? Such questions have already been posed by Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli and Hobbes, Kant and Hegel.