Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View
Stanley Milgram · 1974
The classic account of the Milgram experiments, showing in plain and often unsettling prose how ordinary people follow orders that contradict their own conscience.
Shared book picks
6 book picks worth a look
Someone shared these with you from Highstreett’s book search. Every title is checked against an ISBN record. The links below help you find an edition from the retailer available for this search’s country.
Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes · 1651
The classic starting point for the idea that authority is a human invention, built to escape the chaos of everyone ruling themselves.
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
Philip Zimbardo · 2007
A broad, accessible synthesis that connects Milgram, the Stanford prison experiment and real-world atrocities into a single argument about how situations and authority overwhelm individual judgement.
Power: A New Social Analysis
Bertrand Russell · 1938
A classic, accessible philosophical survey that examines the various forms of power and how the pursuit and exercise of authority shape individual character and society.
Escape from Freedom
Erich Fromm · 1941
A classic exploration of how people both resist and surrender to authority, showing the psychological mechanisms behind obedience and the withdrawal of individual autonomy.
The Prince
Niccolo Machiavelli · 1515
The original practical manual on how a leader can and should use force, fear and deception to keep hold of a state, written with unsettling clarity.
Buy links go through Bookshop.org, which funds independent bookshops. We are not showing live stock or prices here.
We may earn a commission when you buy through these Bookshop.org links. The retailer confirms availability and price.
Ownership, checked
Waterstones, Foyles, Blackwell’s and Hatchards read like four different bookshops. On the register they are one: all four trace to the same controller, walked company by company through Companies House.
These picks were generated by Highstreett’s book search. Run your own to get specific titles matched to what you like to read, each ISBN-verified before it is shown.