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In this monumental work of moral and political philosophy, Plato sought to answer some of the world's most formidable questions: What does it mean to be good? What enables us to distinguish between right and wrong? How should human virtues be translated into a just society? Perhaps the greatest single treatise written on political philosophy, The Republic has strongly influenced Western thought concerning questions of justice, rule, obedience, and the good life.

The Republic poses questions that endure: What is justice? What form of community fosters the best possible life for human beings? What is the nature and destiny of the soul? What form of education provides the best leaders for a good republic? What are the various forms of poetry and the other arts, and which ones should be fostered and which ones should be discouraged? How does knowing differ from believing?

More than 2,000 years later, Plato's Republic remains astonishingly relevant to our everyday lives. It poses one question after another that might well have been drawn from the headlines and debates of our nation's recent history: What sort of person should rule the state? Are all citizens equal before the law? Should everyone have equal access to health care? Plato's greater inquiry, however, was into the question of defining justice itself and the reasons why a person would choose a life aligned with that virtue.

This is the true story of Hans Schroeder, a young German mesmerized by the Hitler Youth aura who finds himself with a SS Panzer division on the Russian front where he is captured and taken prisoner. Years later, he is released from a Siberian prisoner-of-war camp and returns to Wiesbaden, his beautiful German hometown. Those were years of great hardship in postwar Germany. Hans is lucky to find a job in Hans Wiegel's toy shop, falls in love with Eva, and eventually decides to emigrate to the USA.

This is an imaginary drama in verse in which US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pleads with President George Bush, Jr., to be allowed to chronicle the glorious presidency of Mr. Bush after his second inauguration. Of course, he is allowed to do so. Thus emerges a gentle satire which is also a social commentary of our time, replete with a large cast which includes Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, the Ghost of Saddam Hussain, and others, not to mention a sombre 'Chorus of the Homeless' providing a rational commentary throughout. An echo of Greek tragedies of yore.