Description
Book SynopsisMachiavelli''s ideas are as important in our time as in his own. His insights and prescriptions help us make sense of today''s political upheavals and natural calamities and reduce them to a working order. The chapters in Machiavelli Then and Now explore Machiavelli''s central concerns: statecraft and order, liberty and citizenship, diplomacy and leadership, modes of strategization, the quest for empire - all set against the basic contention between autarchy, oligarchy and democracy. They also address the ethical and behaviourial factors behind political practice, such as force, suasion, ambition, corruption and vigilance in public discourse. The contributors consider the role of language, text and the imagination in Machiavelli, and they also bring the Machiavellian discourse closer to our own times, in relation to Gandhi, Gramsci and Althusser. The book will interest historians, political scientists and students of public policy; philosophers, rhetoricians and literary critics; and n
Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors; Preface; Abbreviations and Editions Used; 1. Introduction Prasanta Chakravarty; Part I. Power, Citizenship, Strategies: 2. Machiavelli on relationships: Knowledge of the occasion Thomas Berns; 3. The anatomy of an error: Machiavelli's supposed commitment to a 'Citizen' Militia Paul A. Rahe; 4. Machiavelli and tyranny Doyeeta Majumder; 5. Machiavelli's turn to Xenophon Christopher Nadon and Christopher Lynch; 6. Machiavelli and the solitary discipline of hunting Prasanta Chakravarty; 7. 'To Give Reputation to One': Machiavelli the populist and other variations in Il Principe, Chapter 9 Guido Cappelli; Part II. History: 8. Riscontro: Machiavelli's art of history Francesco Marchesi; 9. 'Letters as Oracles': Machiavelli's foresight in his letters Marcello Simonetta; 10. Machiavelli's Lucretia and the origins of the Roman Republic: Rape, gender, and founding violence Yves Winter; Part III. Words and Dispositions; 11. Thinking with animals: Machiavelli's L'asino and the metamorphoses of power Supriya Chaudhuri; 12. Machiavellian rhetoric revisited Victoria Kahn; 13. Machiavelli reading Swapan Chakravorty; 14. A language for politics and a language of politics: Words as a tool of understanding and of action in Machiavelli Jean-Louis Fournel; Part IV. Afterlife: 15. Machiavelli and Gandhi Sukanta Chaudhuri; 16. The Prince between Gramsci and Althusser Vittorio Morfino; Index.
