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Most Famous Political Writers of All Time

Just who were the greatest political writers to ever exist and even exist to this day? Check out the all-time famous political writers who truly made an impact through their writing.

By George NekilanPublished 6 years ago 8 min read
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Political writers are seen as protestors who protest through their writing. Intelligent, passionate, and inspiring, the world has come across some of the best writers in politics that we've ever seen. From years ago to recent days, these individuals have placed the most powerful words through pen and onto paper and made a difference—impacting people's perspectives. The majority of their writing would usually fall back to the political incidences that would take place during the time, and as their writing affected the people and their views, these are the type of political writes who've earned the title of one of the best.

These are the all-time greatest and famous political writers that have come and go in this world. However, there are also a few of these political writers who are still roaming the earth today. But we will always view them as passionate individuals who only believed in fairness and equality among everyone.


Greg Palast

Author of two international and New York Times bestsellers who’s based on reporting for BBC Television’s premier current program, Newsnight—Greg Palast. He also does investigative reports for Britain’s Guardian newspapers. In fact, Greg was the first who uncovered and documented the purge of thousands of African-American voters, wrongly named felons, and by the state of Florida right before the presidential election of 2000.

His work usually focuses on corporate malfeasance but he also worked with labor unions and consumer advocacy groups. And people to this stay view him as one of the greatest and famous political writers of all time.

Aristotle

Aristotle is without a doubt one of the famous political writers once lived. As a Greek philosopher and a scientist who was born in the Macedonian city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. Together with Socrates and Plato, they exposed most of the groundwork for western philosophy. Even to this day Aristotle is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers in politics, psychology, and even ethics. Not to mention that Aristotle even tutored Alexander the Great.

Aristotle wrote about 200 works; from manuscripts to simple notes, they would all revolve around reasoning, politics, science, rhetoric, and psychology. They consisted of dialogues, records of scientific observations, and systematic works.

John Locke

English philosopher John Locke is certainly among the all-time famous political writers ever. His work would usually lie at the foundation of modern philosophical empiricism and political liberalism. Born in Wrington, Somerset, England, John attended Oxford and studied medicine, which actually plays a significant role in his life. However, he became a highly influential philosopher who wrote about topics like political philosophy, epistemology, and covering topics on education.

John’s writing even helped find the modern Western philosophy. When Lord Ashley was on the way of becoming Earl of Shaftsbury, he grew close to John and persuaded him to move to London to become his personal physician. When Shaftsbury was made chancellor, John assisted his business and political matters, and also became his secretary of presentations.


George Orwell

Have you ever read the amazing book, Animal Farm? English novelist, essayist, and critic George Orwell is actually the mind behind the brilliant novel. He’s also written 1984. Anyway, born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, India, George was a man who was straightforward and had strong opinions where he addressed some of the major political movements of his time. This also included imperialism, fascism, and communism.

Over the years, George took the time to write various assignments. He wrote out multiple essays and reviews which was developing a reputation for producing well-crafted literary criticism. After obtaining a job with the BBC as a producer, he resigned in 1943 for “wasting his own time and the public money on doing work that produces no result.” From there, George became the literary editor for a socialist newspaper. George Orwell is also seen as one of the most famous activists in history.


Karl Marx

Karl Marx was a phenomenal philosopher and revolutionary socialist who taught his work to millions through his writing and definitely inspired many of the philosophers and politicians today. He published The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, which are anticapitalist works that created the basis of Marxism. Karl explored sociopolitical theories at university with the Young Hegelians.

When he became a journalist, his socialist writings would actually get him expelled from Germany and France. And in 1848, Karl published The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels and was immediately exiled to London where he wrote the first volume of Das Kapital. From there, he lived the remainder of his life writing.


Bill O'Reilly

William James “Bill” O’Reilly, Jr. is an American television host, author, syndicated columnist, and political commentator who’s seen as one of the famous political writers in history. Born in New York City, Bill began his television career in local news outlets across the country. He’s even won multiple Emmy Awards. And when Fox News launched, he was quickly hired to host his own program, The O’Reilly Factor, which featured conservative commentary as well as interviews and immediately became one of the top-rated cable news programs.

Bill is also a pretty successful author who wrote a couple of books. He published titles that included nonfiction bestsellers like The O’Reilly Factor in 2000 and The No Spin Zone in 2001. Others novels like Those Who Trespass in 1998 and then there were really controversial historical thrillers like Killing Lincoln in 2011 and Killing Kennedy in 2012—which both sold millions. These books were also adapted into a movie by the History Channel.

Andrei Amalrik

Andrei Amalrik was a Russian writer and dissident who was best known in the Western world for his essay, Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984? Without achieving a degree, he did strange jobs and wrote five unpublished plays but was soon under the gaze of the security police for an attempt to contact a Danish scholar through the Danish Embassy. He also became pretty close to the unofficial youth literary group SMOG.

As for his most famous essay, the book predicts that the country’s eventual breakup will be under the weight of the social and ethnic antagonisms as well as a war with China. While writing in 1969, Andrei intended on making 1980 the date of the Soviet downfall and since 1980 was a round number, he was persuaded by a friend to change it to 1984, which was the Orwellian-inspired year. And when the breakup would occur, he predicted that it would take one of two forms. Either power would pass to the extremist elements and the country would break apart into anarchy, violence, and intense national hatred, or the end would peacefully come by while leading a federation like the British Commonwealth or the European Common Market. But when 1984 was coming closer, Andrei changed up the timetable. But in the end, he still predicted that the Soviet Union would fall apart.

Plato

Not only was Plato one of the more inspiring Ancient Greek philosophers ever, but he’s also among the all-time famous political writers in history. While he’s the founder of the Academy in Athens, he’s also the author of numerous philosophical works of unparalleled influence in Western thought. Plato was actually a student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle.

As for his writing, he explored topics of justice, beauty, and equality which all contained discussions in aesthetics, poetical philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology, and even the philosophy of language. Shortly after Socrate’s death, Plato conveyed his philosophy and teachings through written works like the Apology of Socrates, Protagoras, Euthyphro, Ion, and Hippias Major and Minor. Plato himself wrote his own voice on topics of justice, wisdom, courage, and moderations through the individual perspective and society. Yet, he also explored the role of art like drama, music, dance, and architecture in addition to ethics and morality.

Henry David Thoreau

American poet, essayist, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts. He started off his life writing poetry about nature in the 1840s with poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as a friend and a mentor. Then, in 1845, Henry wrote about his master work, Walden, while staying on Walden Pond for two years. His beliefs in transcendentalism and civil disobediences was very well-known as well as a dedicated abolitionist.

Henry had deep political views which revolved around opposing slavery and the Mexican-American War. He was the one who created a strong case for acting on one’s individual conscience. He didn’t blindly follow laws as well as the government policy. He even published Civil Disobedience in 1849 which inspired so many leaders of the protest movements that were occurring across the globe, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi.

Noam Chomsky

Last, but not least, among the best famous political writers ever is Noam Chomsky. Famed scholar popular for his groundbreaking contributions to linguistics and penetrating critiques of the political systems, Noam was a brilliant prodigy who earned his Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s been a professor at MIT since 1955 and created many controversial theories on human linguistic capacity. He also published topics in his field as well as issues of dissent and US foreign policy.

Seen as “father of modern linguistics” by most people, Noam is a huge figure in analytic philosophy. While authored over 100 books, he also gained a lot of attention through his radical political views which he describes as “libertarian socialist.” He even created a controversy with his 2002 collection of essays, 9-11: Was There an Alternative?, which is based on the September 11 attacks. In fact, the book became a bestseller and was criticized by conservative critics as a distortion of American history while also being praised by supporters.

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About the Creator

George Nekilan

Has a vegetable garden in his backyard, 5th son out of 8 and is a sucker for chick flicks.

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