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Harvey C. Mansfield analyzes the development of executive power,
including its concept, purpose, and philosophical influence.
Striving to bring clarity to the purpose and need for modern
executive power, Taming the Prince discusses the philosophical
influences of executive power and considers the role of the
executive in business and politics. "A sparkling, incisive
historical and philosophical study of executive power. The right
place to begin." - Aaron Wildavsky, Professor of Political Science
and Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
With the end of the Cold War, the death of Communism, and the
decline of Socialism, what are the primary issues, ideologies, and
parties that now structure politics? Melzer, Zinman, and Weinberger
have compiled essays from prominent experts to examine the politics
of the past to help plot the political future. The first half of
the volume addresses OIdentity PoliticsO and OBig GovernmentO and
their respective places in the shaping of the United States
political environment since the end of the Cold War. The second
half of the volume focuses on the political climate in Western
Europe, Russia, India, and China.
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-59) came to America in 1831 to see what
a great republic was like. What struck him most was the country's
equality of conditions, its "democracy," The book he wrote on his
return to France, "Democracy in America," is both the best ever
written on democracy and the best ever written on America. It
remains the most often quoted book about the United States, not
only because it has something to interest and please everyone, but
also because it has something to teach everyone.
Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop's new translation of "Democracy
in America" is only the third since the original two-volume work
was published in 1835 and 1840. It is a spectacular achievement,
capturing the elegance, subtlety, and profundity of Tocqueville's
original. Mansfield and Winthrop have restored the nuances of his
language, with the expressed goal "to convey Tocqueville's thought
as he held it rather than to restate it in comparable terms of
today." The result is a translation with minimal interpretation,
avoiding the problem that Tocqueville himself read in the first
translation of "Democracy in America,"
The strength of the translation is only one reason that Mansfield
and Winthrop's "Democracy in America" will become the authoritative
edition of the text. Also included is a superb and substantial
introduction placing the work and its author in the broader context
of the traditions of political philosophy and statesmanship.
Together in one volume, the new translation, the introduction, and
the translators' annotations of references no longer familiar to us
combine to offer the most readable and faithful version of
Tocqueville's masterpiece.
As we approach the160th anniversary of the publication of
"Democracy in "
"America," Mansfield and Winthrop have provided an additional
reason to celebrate.
Lavishly prepared and produced, this long-awaited new translation
will surely become the authoritative edition of Tocqueville's
profound and prescient masterwork.
In this edited collection, Peter Lawler presents a lucid and
comprehensive introduction to a diverse set of political issues
according to Tocqueville. Democracy and Its Friendly Critics
addresses a variety of modern political and social concerns, such
as the moral dimension of democracy, the theoretical challenges to
democracy in our time, the religious dimension of liberty, and the
meaning of work in contemporary American Life. Taking innovative
and unexpected approaches toward familiar topics, the essays
present engaging insights into a democratic society, and the
contributors include some of today's leading figures in political
philosophy. No other collection on Tocqueville addresses
contemporary American political issues in such a direct and
accessible fashion, making this book a valuable resource for the
study of political theory in America.
In this edited collection, Peter Lawler presents a lucid and
comprehensive introduction to a diverse set of political issues
according to Tocqueville. Democracy and Its Friendly Critics
addresses a variety of modern political and social concerns, such
as the moral dimension of democracy, the theoretical challenges to
democracy in our time, the religious dimension of liberty, and the
meaning of work in contemporary American Life. Taking innovative
and unexpected approaches toward familiar topics, the essays
present engaging insights into a democratic society, and the
contributors include some of today's leading figures in political
philosophy. No other collection on Tocqueville addresses
contemporary American political issues in such a direct and
accessible fashion, making this book a valuable resource for the
study of political theory in America.
This collection of essays by prominent American and French scholars
explores the political, cultural, and social implications of the
most fundamentally formative modern event, the French Revolution.
The contributors contend that the vocabulary and spirit of the
French Revolution has exercised greater influence on the modern
world than the more moderate and by all appearances more successful
American Revolution. The Legacy of the French Revolution delineates
the distinctive characters of the American and French revolutions
and analyzes the different variants of democratic political
traditions that have evolved from this seminal event. This book
will be of particular interest to political theorists, political
historians, and students of democratic theory.
Today, democracy is seen as the best or even the only legitimate
form of government--hardly in need of defense. Delba Winthrop
punctures this complacency and takes up the challenge of justifying
democracy through Aristotle's political science. In Aristotle's
time and in ours, democrats want inclusiveness; they want above all
to include everyone a part of a whole. But what makes a whole? This
is a question for both politics and philosophy, and Winthrop shows
that Aristotle pursues the answer in the Politics. She uncovers in
his political science the insights philosophy brings to politics
and, especially, the insights politics brings to philosophy.
Through her appreciation of this dual purpose and skilled execution
of her argument, Winthrop's discoveries are profound. Central to
politics, she maintains, is the quality of assertiveness--the kind
of speech that demands to be heard. Aristotle, she shows for the
first time, carries assertive speech into philosophy, when human
reason claims its due as a contribution to the universe. Political
science gets the high role of teacher to ordinary folk in democracy
and to the few who want to understand what sustains it. This
posthumous publication is more than an honor to Delba Winthrop's
memory. It is a gift to partisans of democracy, advocates of
justice, and students of Aristotle.
Uniting thirty years of authoritative scholarship by a master of
textual detail, "Machiavelli's Virtue" is a comprehensive statement
on the founder of modern politics. Harvey Mansfield reveals the
role of sects in Machiavelli's politics, his advice on how to rule
indirectly, and the ultimately partisan character of his project,
and shows him to be the founder of such modern and diverse
institutions as the impersonal state and the energetic executive.
Accessible and elegant, this groundbreaking interpretation explains
the puzzles and reveals the ambition of Machiavelli's thought.
"The book brings together essays that have mapped [Mansfield's]
paths of reflection over the past thirty years. . . . The ground,
one would think, is ancient and familiar, but Mansfield manages to
draw out some understandings, or recognitions, jarringly
new."--Hadley Arkes, "New Criterion"
"Mansfield's book more than rewards the close reading it
demands."--Colin Walters, "Washington Times"
"[A] masterly new book on the Renaissance courtier, statesman and
political philosopher. . . . Mansfield seeks to rescue Machiavelli
from liberalism's anodyne rehabilitation."--Roger Kimball, "The
Wall Street Journal"
In this incisive look at early modern views of party politics,
Harvey C. Mansfield examines the pamphlet war between Edmund Burke
and the followers of Henry St. John, First Viscount Bolingbroke
during the mid-eighteenth century. In response to works by
Bolingbroke published posthumously, Burke created his most eloquent
advocacy of the party system. Taking an interdisciplinary approach
to the material, Mansfield shows that present-day parties must be
understood in the light of the history of party government. The
complicated organization and the public actions of modern parties
are the result, he contends, and not the cause of a great change in
opinion about parties. Mansfield points out that while parties have
always existed, the party government that we know today is possible
only because parties are now considered respectable. In Burke's
day, however, they were thought by detractors to be a cancer in a
free polity. Burke, however, was an early champion of the party
system in Britain and made his arguments with a clear-eyed realism.
In "Statesmanship and Party Government", Mansfield provides a
skillful evaluation of Burke's writings and sheds light on
present-day party politics.
Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders is the only full-length
interpretive study on Machiavelli's controversial and ambiguous
work, Discourses on Livy. These discourses, considered by some to
be Machiavelli's most important work, are thoroughly explained in a
chapter-by-chapter commentary by Harvey C. Mansfield, one of the
world's foremost interpreters of this remarkable philosopher.
Mansfield's aim is to discern Machiavelli's intention in writing
the book: he argues that Machiavelli wanted to introduce new modes
and orders in political philosophy in order to make himself the
founder of modern politics. Mansfield maintains that Machiavelli
deliberately concealed part of his intentions so that only the most
perceptive reader could see beneath the surface of the text and
understand the whole of his book. Previously out of print,
Mansfield's penetrating study brings to light the hidden thoughts
lurking in the details of the Discourses on Livy to inform and
challenge its readers at every step along the way.
Machiavelli is said to be a Renaissance thinker, yet in a notable
phrase he invented, 'the effectual truth,' he attacked the
high-sounding humanism typical of the Renaissance, while mounting a
conspiracy against the classical and Christian values of his time.
In Machiavelli's Effectual Truth this overlooked phrase is studied
and explained for the first time. The upshot of 'effectual truth'
for any individual is to not depend on anyone or anything outside
yourself to keep you free and secure. Mansfield argues that this
phrase reveals Machiavelli's approach to modern science, with its
focus on the efficient cause and concern for fact. He inquires into
the effect Machiavelli expected from his own writings, who believed
his philosophy would have an effect that future philosophers could
not ignore. His plan, according to Mansfield, was to bring about a
desired effect and thus to create his own future and ours.
"Discourses on Livy" is the founding document of modern
republicanism, and Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov have
provided the definitive English translation of this classic work.
Faithful to the original Italian text, properly attentive to
Machiavelli's idiom and subtlety of thought, it is eminently
readable. With a substantial introduction, extensive explanatory
notes, a glossary of key words, and an annotated index, the
"Discourses" reveals Machiavelli's radical vision of a new science
of politics, a vision of "new modes and orders" that continue to
shape the modern ethos.
"[Machiavelli] found in Livy the means to inspire scholars for five
centuries. Within the "Discourses," often hidden and sometimes
unintended by their author, lie the seeds of modern political
thought. . . . [Mansfield and Tarcov's] translation is careful and
idiomatic."--Peter Stothard, "The Times"
"Translated with painstaking accuracy--but also great
readability."--"Weekly Standard"
"A model of contemporary scholarship and a brave effort at
Machiavelli translation that allows the great Florentine to speak
in his own voice."--"Choice"
Machiavelli is said to be a Renaissance thinker, yet in a notable
phrase he invented, 'the effectual truth,' he attacked the
high-sounding humanism typical of the Renaissance, while mounting a
conspiracy against the classical and Christian values of his time.
In Machiavelli's Effectual Truth this overlooked phrase is studied
and explained for the first time. The upshot of 'effectual truth'
for any individual is to not depend on anyone or anything outside
yourself to keep you free and secure. Mansfield argues that this
phrase reveals Machiavelli's approach to modern science, with its
focus on the efficient cause and concern for fact. He inquires into
the effect Machiavelli expected from his own writings, who believed
his philosophy would have an effect that future philosophers could
not ignore. His plan, according to Mansfield, was to bring about a
desired effect and thus to create his own future and ours.
This translation . . . of Machiavelli's thoughts on his native city
is meant to be less colloquial and closer to the original than the
typical translation. This highlights how Machiavelli used words
(and thought) differently from us. . . . Machiavelli is too often
remembered merely as the realist who took the morality out of
virtue.' As the Histories demonstrate, he was also a gifted writer
and historian.--Virginia Quarterly ReviewBanfield and Mansfield's
new rendition of the Renaissance humanist's study of Florentine
history aims to supply contemporary readers with a literal, exact,
and readable version of the original. . . . Machiavelli's concept
of history and his purpose in charting the story of Florence and
its leading families are thoroughly examined before the translators
lead their readers into the substance of the social philosopher's
arguments and into a work of literature that once again comes
alive.--Booklist
The most famous book on politics ever written, "The Prince" remains
as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five
hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister
maxims and a recommendation of tyranny, it has more recently been
defended as the first scientific treatment of politics as it is
practiced rather than as it ought to be practiced. Harvey C.
Mansfield's brilliant translation of this classic work, along with
the new materials added for this edition, make it the definitive
version of "The Prince," indispensable to scholars, students, and
those interested in the dark art of politics.
This revised edition of Mansfield's acclaimed translation features
an updated bibliography, a substantial glossary, an analytic
introduction, a chronology of Machiavelli's life, and a map of
Italy in Machiavelli's time.
"Of the other available [translations], that of Harvey C. Mansfield
makes the necessary compromises between exactness and readability,
as well as providing an excellent introduction and
notes."--Clifford Orwin, "The Wall Street Journal"
"Mansfield's work . . . is worth acquiring as the best combination
of accuracy and readability."--"Choice"
"There is good reason to assert that Machiavelli has met his match
in Mansfield. . . . [He] is ready to read Machiavelli as he demands
to be read--plainly and boldly, but also cautiously."--John
Gueguen, "The Sixteenth Century Journal"
Focusing on the elections of 1980, 1982, and 1984, Mansfield
critiques contemporary conservatism for its ignorance of the
political theory implicit in the Constitution.
Machiavelli's Virtue is a comprehensive statement on the founder of
modern politics. Harvey C. Mansfield begins by analyzing
Machiavelli's radical notion of virtue, which culminates in his own
personal virtue. Machiavelli shows that princes need a new morality
that only he has supplied. Mansfield argues that Machiavelli
intended to rule the world through his thought; though a prince
without a state, his subjects were the princes who would follow his
writings on founding and ruling. This new "perpetual republic" is
Machiavelli's own sect - and a remedy for the failures of all
previous republics. Mansfield reveals the role of sects in
Machiavelli's politics, his advice on how to rule indirectly, and
the ultimately partisan character of his project. Following the
method of Leo Strauss, he takes up Machiavelli's individual works
as wholes and shows him to be the founder of modern institutions
that came later, such as the impersonal state and the energetic
executive. Mansfield thus makes the case that Machiavelli is alive
for us and full of the wisdom we need. His thought cannot be
dismissed as quaint and obsolete; it is disturbingly relevant for
our delusions and our complacency.
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