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Showing 1 - 19 of 19 matches in All Departments
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
"America at Risk" gathers original essays by a distinguished and bipartisan group of writers and intellectuals to address a question that matters to Americans of every political persuasion: what are some of the greatest dangers facing America today? The answers, which range from dwindling political participation to rising poverty, and religion to empire, add up to a valuable and timely portrait of a particular moment in the history of American ideas. While the opinions are many, there is a central theme in the book: the corrosion of the liberal constitutional order that has long guided the country at home and abroad. The authors write about the demonstrably important dangers the United States faces while also breaking the usual academic boundaries: there are chapters on the family, religious polarization, immigration, and the economy, as well as on governmental and partisan issues. "America at Risk" is required reading for all Americans alarmed about the future of their country. Contributors
Robert Faulkner is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. Susan Shell is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. ""America at Risk" goes well beyond the usual diagnoses of
issues debated in public life like immigration, war, and debt, to
consider the Republic's founding principles, and the ways in which
they have been displaced by newer thoughts and habits in
contemporary America. A critical book for understanding our present
condition." "In this penetrating book, the nation's finest social and
political thinkers from across the spectrum take a careful and
no-holds-barred look at the dangers facing the American political
system. The conclusions are more unsettling than reassuring---but
that is because they are honest and real." "In the midst of overwrought pundits, irate soccer moms, and
outraged bloggers, it is difficult to distinguish genuine dangers
from false alarms and special pleading. This book enables us to do
so, in a way that helps us to actually think about, not just feel
anxious about, threats to those features of American society that
are worth cherishing. The authors range in ideology and expertise,
but they are uniformly judicious, incisive, and informative. This
is a fascinating book about issues that the political system
usually ignores or exaggerates."
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