From the Publisher
The Machiavellian Moment is a classic study of the
consequences for modern historical and social consciousness of the
ideal of the classical republic revived by Machiavelli and other
thinkers of Renaissance Italy. J.G.A. Pocock suggests that
Machiavelli''s prime emphasis was on the moment in which the
republic confronts the problem of its own instability in time, and
which he calls the "Machiavellian moment."
After examining this problem in the thought of Machiavelli,
Guicciardini, and Giannotti, Pocock turns to the revival of
republican thought in Puritan England and in Revolutionary and
Federalist America. He argues that the American Revolution can be
considered the last great act of civic humanism of the Renaissance.
He relates the origins of modern historicism to the clash between
civic, Christian, and commercial values in the thought of the
eighteenth century.
From the Jacket
"The Machiavellian Moment raised a thousand issues,
settled two or three, and gave historians and philosophers a
generation''s work. It is a must-read and a must-have."--Philip
Pettit, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Princeton
University
"In analyzing the history of consciousness as explicated through
philosophers, political theorists, historians, theologians,
lawyers, and prophets, [this book] presents a new interpretation of
wide-ranging problems. It should be of great value to scholars in
many disciplines concerned with the history of ideas."--Marvin B.
Becker
About the Author
J.G.A. Pocock is Professor Emeritus of History at Johns Hopkins University. His books include The Political Works of James Harrington; Virtue, Commerce and History; Barbarism and Religion, I: The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon; and Barbarism and Religion, II: Narratives of Civil Government.
About the Book
"The Machiavellian Moment" is a classic study of the
consequences for modern historical and social consciousness of the
ideal of the classical republic revived by Machiavelli and other
thinkers of Renaissance Italy. J.G.A. Pocock suggests that
Machiavelli's prime emphasis was on the moment in which the
republic confronts the problem of its own instability in time, and
which he calls the "Machiavellian moment."
After examining this problem in the thought of Machiavelli,
Guicciardini, and Giannotti, Pocock turns to the revival of
republican thought in Puritan England and in Revolutionary and
Federalist America. He argues that the American Revolution can be
considered the last great act of civic humanism of the Renaissance.
He relates the origins of modern historicism to the clash between
civic, Christian, and commercial values in the thought of the
eighteenth century.
Format: Trade Paperback
Published: January 27, 2003
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Language: English
