Search results for ""Author Alin Fumurescu""
Cambridge University Press Compromise and the American Founding
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£85.50
Cambridge University Press Foundations of American Political Thought
Book SynopsisAmerican political thought was shaped by a unique combination of theoretical influences: republicanism, liberalism, and covenant theology. This reader shows how these influences came together. Organized chronologically from the Puritans'' arrival in the New World to the Civil War, each chapter includes carefully selected primary sources and substantial commentary to explain the historical context and significance of the excerpts. A coherent interpretative framework is offered by focusing the analysis on the different assumptions of the people - the republican understanding as a corporate whole and the liberal understanding as a multitude of individuals - that were intertwined during the founding. The book features, for the first time, two chapters on non-American authors, who capture the main tenets of republicanism and liberalism and were widely quoted in the era, as well as excerpts from lesser-known sources, including Puritan covenants, the first state constitutions, and Native AmerTrade Review'This valuable anthology connects primary texts of American political thought with key works of the European tradition. By focusing on the liberal, republican, and Puritan sources of the American founding period, Fumurescu and Schön provide the best introduction I know to the richness and diversity of our enduring national character. This book will be an invaluable instructional text for years to come.' Steven B. Smith, Yale University'This is a judiciously selected, well organized, and helpfully introduced anthology that should prove a valuable resource for both undergraduate and graduate teaching of the historical foundations of America's civic culture.' Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas, Austin'Alin Fumurescu and Anna Marisa Schön provide an excellent introduction to the foundations of American political thought with this collection of readings and commentary that showcases competing understandings of the American political order and contested notions of American exceptionalism. Beginning with the classical and modern sources of American political thought and concluding with Abraham Lincoln's profound reflections in the crucible of the Civil War, this book is an essential resource for students and scholars alike.' Justin Buckley Dyer, University of MissouriTable of Contents1. Introduction – The People's Two Bodies; 2. Republicanism – The People 'Is'; 3. Liberalism – The People 'Are'; 4. The Puritans – The Bi-Dimensional Covenant; 5. Independence – The Negative Founding; 6. The Positive Founding (I): One People or Several Peoples? 7. The Positive Founding (II) – The People as One and Many; 8. The Whole and the Parties; 9. People That Were Left Behind; 10. The United States 'Is'.
£94.99
Cambridge University Press Compromise
Book SynopsisThis book offers a conceptual history of compromise. Fumurescu combines contextual historical analysis of daily parlance and a survey of the usage of the word from the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth century in both French and English.Trade Review'In this bold, scrupulous, and wholly original work of political theory, Alin Fumurescu undertakes a genealogy of this crucial but frequently maligned concept. In a fascinating reconstruction of the etymology of compromise, Fumurescu traces the roots of our ambivalence to the early modern world, when a largely positive English view that regards compromise as a healthy attribute of liberal politics diverged sharply from the French contempt for compromise as a betrayal of our innermost conscience. The author moves effortlessly from Athens and Rome to early modern Europe and beyond, connecting back up with today's philosophical discussions of compromise. By tracing clear lines of influence between early modern intellectual history and our contemporary political tribulations, the author succeeds where many works of political theory fall short. Fumurescu's insights will be of interest to historians, philosophers, political theorists, and policy makers alike.' Richard Boyd, Georgetown University'When should you compromise, and when should you stick to your guns? There are many occasions in life and politics when it would be helpful to have a reliable answer to this question. One way of answering it is to survey the options, to see the answers that people have given over the years, and that is one of the things that this book does. But it does much more: it also carries out a profound philosophical analysis of the concept and of the many answers that have been given … If we can learn from the past, we can use this book to chart the future of compromise, the future that can be expected in different social and political regimes of this very valuable alternative to violence.' John Christian Laursen, University of California, Riverside'This is intellectual history at its finest. Fumurescu presents a 'conceptual genealogy' of the hitherto surprisingly under-theorized concept of moral and political compromise since the sixteenth century. Focusing on both minor and canonical writings in the continental European and Anglo-American worlds, Fumurescu reveals conceptual tensions and ambiguities that continue to underpin contemporary understandings of the value and dangers of compromise in politics. His determination to pursue the evidence wherever it leads, from the classical and medieval worlds to contemporary political controversy, has resulted in a very wide ranging, erudite, and yet thoroughly accessible study. Any future work on the character of modern individualism, political representation, and self-representation, as well as the varieties of modern contractualism, will be obliged to take Fumurescu's novel and profoundly challenging theses into account.' Martyn P. Thompson, Tulane University'Fumerescu has written one of the most interesting books of political theory in a long time … Writing with wit, depth, and an astonishing command of history and philosophy … Fumurescu investigates not only the etymology of the word [compromise] but the causes of its various shifts in meaning and the intellectual and practical consequences of those changes … a startling interesting story, and no one has ever told it better, for Fumurescu is doing more than merely regaling readers: this is both serious history and serious political theory … Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections.' M. Berheide, ChoiceTable of Contents1. Introduction: 'in politics we have an art...'; 2. No compromise about compromise; 3. The genealogy of compromise and its vagaries; 4. The dialectic of the individual; 5. Compromise and centripetal individualism; 6. Compromise and centrifugal individualism; 7. The forgotten road of representation: continental contractarian theories; 8. The British contract as com-promise; 9. Conclusions: compromising the art of compromise - the one-dimensional man.
£31.90
Lexington Books The Spirit of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters
Book SynopsisThis book’s primary purpose is to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, a seminal book in classical liberal thought. Persian Letters is a delightfully rich, sympathetic satire of commercial society’s promise and discontents, covering a wide range of issues and themes that shaped the direction of liberal modernity. It consists of a series of letters largely written by two Persian travelers to Paris, who allow modern readers to view Parisian life from the perspective of an outsider. The volume includes contributions from prominent scholars of Montesquieu’s and early career scholars who have recently unearthed new and exciting avenues for understanding this important hinge-figure in modern political thought.Trade ReviewMontesquieu’s Persian Letters is one of the gems of the Enlightenment, at once amusing and profound, accessible and sophisticated. This marvelous collection of essays not only does justice to the book’s complexities but also demonstrates that the issues and questions raised by Montesquieu’s story remain as relevant today as they were three centuries ago. -- Dennis C. Rasmussen, Syracuse UniversityThis volume is a most welcome and truly important contribution to serious interpretive reflection on what is perhaps the most understudied, and least well understood, great work of political philosophy. A true galaxy of contributors includes many of the most distinguished scholars of Montesquieu and of French Enlightenment political thought—each of whom has penned a gem of an essay. A true feast for the intellect! -- Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at AustinThis impressive volume -- the first dedicated to Montequieu's Persian Letters -- will not only serve as a benchmark for future scholarship on this important philosophical novel, but it will also inspire. It restores a very important part of Montesquieu's work to his overall political thought, and there is not one weak contribution in it. -- Khalil Habib, Hillsdale CollegeTable of ContentsForeword, Helena RosenblattAcknowledgmentsPART I: The Persian Letters in the History of Political TheoryChapter 1. Philosophizing the Passions: The Seraglio as Laboratory in the Persian Letters Céline SpectorChapter 2. Conflict in the Persian Letters, Pauline KraChapter 3. Persian Letters in Time: Adhesive Past: Bright, Unstable Present: Divergent, Fragile Futures, Michael MosherPART II: The Persian Letters on Nature and Convention in PoliticsChapter 4. Pitfalls of Abstract Ideals: Usbek on the Law of Nations, Andrea RadasanuChapter 5. Faces of Monarchy in West and East and the Limits of Traditional Jurisprudence: Montesquieu in Dialogue with Bodin in the Persian Letters, Rebecca KingstonChapter 6. The Struggle for Recognition and the Economy of Esteem in and out of the Seraglio, Robert SparlingPART III: The Persian Letters on Commercial SocietyChapter 7. The Plague of High Finance in Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, Emily Nacol and Constantine Christos VassiliouChapter 8. The Political Economy of the Persian Letters; or, Self-Interest Wrongly Understood, in Three Lessons, Ryan HanleyChapter 9. Female Modesty and the Spirit of Commerce in Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, Lee WardChapter 10. Rica in Paris: Sociability and Cosmopolitanism in the Persian Letters., Megan GallagherPART IV: The Persian Letters as a Critique of ModernityChapter 11. Who is the Hero of the Persian Letters, Jeffrey ChurchChapter 12. Hiding in Plain Sight: Montesquieu as a Friendly Influence in The Persian Letters, Vickie SullivanChapter 13. What did Usbek—and the Reader—Know, and When Did He Know It?, John T. ScottChapter 14. The Book of Relations: Reflections from Montesquieu's Persian Letters, Stuart WarnerChapter 15. The Unknown Chains of Enlightenment: The Irony of Philosophy or an Ironic Philosopher, Peter LundAbout the Contributors
£76.50
