Hertford College, Oxford
Recommended Readings for Philosophy
General Philosophy
The first year “General Philosophy” course covers topics particularly associated with
Descartes and Hume, who also feature strongly in the second year “History of Philosophy”
course. The most useful editions are:
René Descartes
David Hume
Meditations on First Philosophy, with selections from the Objections and
Replies (ed. John Cottingham, Cambridge, 1996)
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (ed. Peter Millican, Oxford
World’s Classics, 2007)
The Introduction to this Hume edition gives a general overview of the development of
philosophy over the relevant period, written with first year Oxford students in mind.
Moral Philosophy
The set text for the first year “Moral Philosophy” course is Mill’s Utilitarianism, for which
the best edition is:
J. S. Mill
Utilitarianism (ed. Roger Crisp, Oxford Philosophical Texts, 1998)
Crisp has also written an excellent Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Mill on Utilitarianism
(1997), though – as with most “secondary” literature – you are advised to borrow this rather
than buy your own.
Logic
The logic course is now taught using a book (by Volker Halbach) produced by the Philosophy
Faculty, details of which can be found at http://philosophy.hertford.ox.ac.uk/logic.htm. A
useful book for background reading, which used to be the set text, is:
Wilfrid Hodges
Logic (Penguin, second edition 2001)
Background Reading
Perhaps the best way to prepare yourself for studying Philosophy is to spend time thinking for
yourself about philosophical problems in the company of books such as:
Stephen Law
Simon Blackburn
Laurence Goldstein
Bertrand Russell
Edward Craig
The Philosophy Gym (Headline, 2004)
Think (Oxford Paperbacks, 2001)
The Philosopher's Habitat (Routledge, 1990)
The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford Paperbacks, 2001)
Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford Paperbacks, 2002)
It's also well worth looking at books by authors such as Julian Baggini and Nigel Warburton,
who have produced several good introductions to aspects of the subject. The ideal reading
material before coming to Oxford are books that really grab you, and are able to make you
feel the interest and significance of the sorts of problems that Philosophy presents.
Hertford College, Oxford
Recommended Readings for Politics
Political Theory Texts
(These are compulsory reading for the Political Theory tutorials.)
A. De Toqueville
J. S. Mill
J. J. Rousseau
K. Marx
Democracy in America (Vol 1: Author’s Introduction; Part1, chs 3-5;
Part 2, chs 6-9; Vol 2: Part 2, chs 1-8; Part 4, chs 1-8)
On Liberty (in Mill, ed. Alan Ryan, Norton Critical Editions, 1997,
which has the text and useful commentary)
The Social Contract
The Communist Manifesto; The German Ideology (excerpts); Critique of
the Gotha Programme (excerpts). All in D.McLellan (ed.), Karl Marx:
A Selection (Oxford 1977), pp.159-91, 221-47, 564-70)
Further reading for Political Theory
(You may find these useful introductions to the study of political theory.)
Stears & Leopold (eds) Political Theory: Methods and Approaches (OUP, 2008)
Michael Freeden
Rights (OUP, 1991)
Jonathan Wolff
An Introduction to Political Philosophy (OUP, 2006)
David Miller
Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2003)
History and Institutions
Britain
Kenneth Morgan
D. Kavanagh
Tony Wright
The People’s Peace: British History 1945-1990 (3rd ed 2000)
British Politics: Continuities and Change (4th ed 2000)
British Politics: A Very Short Introduction
Germany:
P. Pulzer
M. Schmidt
German Politics 1945-95 (1996)
Political Institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany (2003)
France
R. Elgie
A. Stevens
Political Institutions in Contemporary France (2003)
The Government & Politics of France (2nd ed 1996)
USA
N. Bowles
M. Vile
The Government & Politics of the United States (2nd ed 1998)
Politics in the USA (5th Ed 1999)
Hertford College, Oxford
Recommended Readings for Economics
Introductory Textbooks
For those with no economics background, two popular introductory texts are the following.
Begg et al. is arguably the better of the two:

Begg, D., Fischer, S. and Dornbusch, R. (2005), Economics, 8/e, McGraw-Hill.

Lipsey, R. and Chrystal, K. (2007), Principles of Economics, 11/e, Oxford UP.
Note that earlier editions are fine.
Main First Year Textbooks
The main texts for microeconomics and macroeconomics are Varian, and Mankiw and Taylor
respectively. You should purchase Mankiw and Taylor and possibly Varian. However,
Varian is very condensed and rather dry. An excellent alternative is Bernheim and Winston,
which is very clear and readable.

Bernheim, D. and Whinston, M. (2008), Microeconomics, McGraw Hill.

Mankiw, G. and Taylor, M. (2007), Macroeconomics (European Edition), Worth.

Varian, H. (2006), Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, 7/e, Norton.
Other useful but more advanced micro and macro texts are:

Blanchard, O. (2008), Macroeconomics, 5/e, Prentice Hall.

Katz, M. and Rosen, H. (2005), Microeconomics (European Edition), McGraw-Hill.

Miles, D. and Scott, A. (2004), Macroeconomics, 2/e, McGraw Hill.
General Economics Reading
There are some very good, popular economics books about. I particularly like the following:

Dixit, A. and Nalebuff, B. (1993), Thinking Strategically, Norton.

Harford, T. (2007), The Undercover Economist, Little Brown.

Kay, J. (2004), The Truth About Markets: Why Some Countries are Rich and Others
Remain Poor, Penguin.

Kay, J. (2004), The Everlasting Lightbulb: How Economics Illuminates the World,
Erasmus Press.

Krugman, P. (1999), The Accidental Theorist, Penguin.

Landsburg, S. (1995), The Armchair Economist, Free Press.

Levitt, S. and Dubner, S. (2007), Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the
Hidden Side of Everything, Penguin.
More generally, you should scan The Economist and look at the weekly “Economics Focus”
article. You should read economics articles in the broadsheets and the Financial Times.
Many of the letters, commentary articles (by Sam Britain and Martin Wolf inter alia), as well
as the analysis articles in the FT are interesting.
Mathematics
If your maths is rusty, you need to revise it! The McGraw-Hill Demystified maths books are
quite good and very clear. The How to Ace Calculus book is both amusing (or very
annoying) and good at the same time.

Adams, C., Hass, J. and Thompson, A., (1998), How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise
Guide, W. H. Freeman & Co.

Huettenmueller, R. (2002), Algebra Demystified, McGraw Hill.

Huettenmueller, R. (2007), Business Calculus Demystified, McGraw Hill.
Lots of “mathematics for economists” textbooks are available. The books vary in style and in
complexity, so it is matter of finding one that you like. Two useful textbooks are:

Anthony, M. and Biggs, N. (1996), Mathematics for Economics and Finance,
Cambridge University Press.

Jacques, I. (1999), Mathematics for Economics and Business, 3/e, Addison-Wesley
Longman.
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