The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes: Meaning and Failure of a Political Symbol Book

The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes offers significant academic value to those interested in Schmitt's political writings historically, and even biographically. George Schwabb suggests in the introduction, and perhaps I am taking too much freedom in my interpretation of this, that the work is a kind of apology for Schmitt's support of the Nazi regime.

That being said, the work is majorly an examination of the concept of the Leviathan in Hobbes' work. This begins with the Leviathan as a mythological image, and the import of such an image for the historical, perhaps political, on the digestion of Hobbes' political theory. Then, the evaluation Schmitt's interpretation of the image is set forth, which invites evaluation of the Leviathan's message, its structure, and it's role in the political theory of Hobbes, and the history of the political theory of liberal democracy. This allows for examination of its objections, its ultimate weakening, most explicitly, the attack of Spinoza's Tractatus.