This new revised edition includes an updated bibliography, a new glossary and index and fresh suggestions for further reading, as well as a discussion of ideology after September 11.

Ideology:

*traces the history of the term and the debates which surround it, from Machiavelli to the present day

*asks why ideology matters

*examines ideology within the critical frameworks of empiricism, idealism, Marxism, post-Marxism and postmodernism.

With plenty of clear examples to illuminate the discussion, Ideology offers an accessible introduction to this controversial and widely debated critical concept.