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Virtue Politics - Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy (Hardcover)
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Virtue Politics - Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy (Hardcover)
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Winner of the Helen and Howard Marraro Prize A Times Literary
Supplement Book of the Year A bold, revisionist account of the
political thought of the Italian Renaissance-from Petrarch to
Machiavelli-that reveals the all-important role of character in
shaping society, both in citizens and in their leaders. Convulsed
by a civilizational crisis, the great thinkers of the Renaissance
set out to reconceive the nature of society. Everywhere they saw
problems. Corrupt and reckless tyrants sowing discord and ruling
through fear; elites who prized wealth and status over the common
good; military leaders waging endless wars. Their solution was at
once simple and radical. "Men, not walls, make a city," as
Thucydides so memorably said. They would rebuild their city, and
their civilization, by transforming the moral character of its
citizens. Soulcraft, they believed, was a precondition of
successful statecraft. A dazzlingly ambitious reappraisal of
Renaissance political thought by one of our generation's foremost
intellectual historians, Virtue Politics challenges the traditional
narrative that looks to the Renaissance as the seedbed of modern
republicanism and sees Machiavelli as its exemplary thinker. James
Hankins reveals that what most concerned the humanists was not
reforming laws or institutions so much as shaping citizens. If
character mattered more than constitutions, it would have to be
nurtured through a new program of education they called the studia
humanitatis: the humanities. We owe liberal arts education and much
else besides to the bold experiment of these passionate and
principled thinkers. The questions they asked-Should a good man
serve a corrupt regime? What virtues are necessary in a leader?
What is the source of political legitimacy? Is wealth concentration
detrimental to social cohesion? Should citizens be expected to
fight for their country?-would have a profound impact on later
debates about good government and seem as vital today as they did
then.
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