Description
Book SynopsisThis volume offers a broad exploration of the cultural history of democracy in the Renaissance. The Renaissance has rarely been considered an important moment in the history of democracy. Nonetheless, as this volume shows, this period may be seen as a democratic laboratory in many, often unexpected, ways. The classicizing cultural movement known as humanism, which spread throughout Europe and beyond in this period, had the effect of vastly enhancing knowledge of the classical democratic and republican traditions. Greek history and philosophy, including the story of Athenian democracy, became fully known in the West for the first time in the postclassical world. Partly as a result of this, the period from 1400 to 1650 witnessed rich and historically important debates on some of the enduring political issues at the heart of democratic culture: issues of sovereignty, of liberty, of citizenship, of the common good, of the place of religion in government.
At the same time, the in
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Series Preface Introduction Virginia Cox (New York University, USA) and Joanne Paul (University of Sussex, UK) 1. Sovereignty Dan Lee (University of California, Berkeley, USA) 2. Liberty and the Rule of Law Peter Stacey (University of California, LA, USA) 3. The “Common Good” Simone Maghenzani (Girton College, University of Cambridge, UK) 4. Economic and Social Democracy Anna K. Becker (Aarhus University, Denmark) 5. Religion and the Principles of Political Obligation Ethan H. Shagan (University of California, Berkeley, USA) 6. Citizenship and Gender Virginia Cox (New York University, USA) 7. Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism Peter Stamatov (Yale University, USA) 8. Democratic Crises, Revolutions and Civil Resistance David Ragazzoni (Columbia University, USA) 9. International Relations Kurosh Meshkat (BL-Qatar Foundation Project) 10. Beyond the Polis, Transforming Sovereignty Kirsty Rolfe (Leiden University, Netherlands) Notes Bibliography Index
