Books in the Ideas in Context series

Beginning with a sustained analysis of Seneca's theory of monarchy in the treatise De clementia, in this text Peter Stacey traces the formative impact of ancient Roman political philosophy upon medieval and Renaissance thinking about princely government on the Italian peninsula from the time of Frederick II to the early modern period. Roman Monarchy and the Renaissance Prince offers a systematic reconstruction of the pre-humanist and humanist history of the genre of political reflection known as the mirror-for-princes tradition - a tradition which, as Stacey shows, is indebted to Seneca's speculum above all other classical accounts of the virtuous prince - and culminates with a comprehensive and controversial reading of the greatest work of renaissance political theory, Machiavelli's The Prince. Peter Stacey brings to light a story which has been lost from view in recent accounts of the Renaissance debt to classical antiquity, providing a radically revisionist account of the history of the Renaissance prince.

Mikael Hornqvist challenges us to rethink the overall meaning and importance of Machiavelli's political thinking. Machiavelli and Empire combines close textual analysis of The Prince and The Discourses with a broad historical approach, to establish the importance of empire-building and imperial strategy in Machiavelli's thought. The primary context of Machiavelli's work, Hornqvist argues, is not the mirror-for-princes genre or medieval and Renaissance republicanism in general, but a tradition of Florentine imperialist republicanism dating back to the late thirteenth-century, based on the twin notions of liberty at home and empire abroad. Weaving together themes and topics drawn from contemporary Florentine political debate, Medicean ritual and Renaissance triumphalism, this study explores how Machiavelli in his chancery writings and theoretical works promoted the long standing aspirations of Florence to become a great and expanding empire, modelled on the example of the ancient Roman republic. This is a distinctive and important work.

Professor Rosenblatt presents a study of Benjamin Constant's intellectual development into a founding father of modern liberalism, through a careful analysis of his evolving views on religion. Constant's life spanned the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Napoleon's rise and rule, and the Bourbon Restoration. Rosenblatt analyzes Constant's key role in many of this era's heated debates over the role of religion in politics, and in doing so, exposes and addresses many misconceptions that have long reigned about Constant and his period. In particular, Rosenblatt sheds light on Constant's major, yet much-neglected work, De La Religion. Given that the role of religion is, once again, center-stage in our political, philosophical and historical arenas, Liberal Values constitutes a major revision of our understanding of the origins of modern liberalism.

A sustained, modern exploration of the celebrated eighteenth-century Scottish historian, William Robertson (1721-1793). He stood alongside David Hume and Edward Gibbon in reputation and his histories helped shape the European consciousness.

Studying those intellectual pursuits that have shaped the understanding of Britain as an industrial society and continue to influence cultural responses to the moral questions posed by economic life, Donald Winch addresses the 'bitter argument between economists and human beings' provoked by Britain's industrial revolution.

Karl Marx's early writings provide the fascinating spectacle of a powerful and imaginative intellect wrestling with complex and significant issues, but present formidable interpretative obstacles to modern readers. David Leopold shows how an understanding of their intellectual and cultural context can illuminate the political dimension of these works.

This highly acclaimed volume brings together some of the world's foremost historians of ideas to consider Machiavelli's political thought in the larger context of the European republican tradition.

Did science and philosophy develop differently in ancient Greece and ancient China? If so, can we say why? This book offers answers to these questions with a series of detailed studies of cosmology, natural philosophy, mathematics and medicine, and by relating the science produced in each ancient civilisation to the values of the society in question.

Civic humanism has been one of the most influential concepts in the history of ideas ever since the pioneering work of Hans Baron and J. G. A. Pocock. This book reassesses the evolution of important republican concepts in relation to the medieval and early modern traditions of political thought.

This wide-ranging 2007 study of Claude Levi-Strauss's aesthetic thought demonstrates not only its centrality within his overall oeuvre but also the importance of Levi-Strauss for contemporary aesthetic enquiry. Levi-Strauss, Anthropology and Aesthetics combines the different perspectives of anthropology, philosophy, aesthetic theory and literary criticism into a highly imaginative whole.

Describing a central episode in the history of free speech, David Colclough demonstrates that in early seventeenth-century England people had a highly developed language in which to claim freedom of speech as a right and duty, uncovering an alternative tradition to the one that dominates much modern political theory.

This collection of essays by leading figures in philosophy and the history of ideas provides access to key early modern disputes over what it meant to be a philosopher and to the institutional, political and religious contexts in which such disputes took place.

This 2010 text considers Adam Smith's views on moral judgement, humanitarian care, commerce, justice and international law both in historical context and through a contemporary cosmopolitan lens. The result is a major contribution to Smith studies, and to the history of cosmopolitan thought and contemporary cosmopolitan discourse itself.

This wide-ranging and original 2007 study provides an insight into the climate of political thought during the lifespan of what was, at this time, the most powerful empire in history. A distinguished group of contributors explores the way in which thinkers in Britain theorised influential views about empire and international relations.

The distinguished team of international contributors to this 2001 volume explores the relationship between the history of political thought as a discipline, and the politics, history and culture of the various nations discussed, which include the UK, the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Central and Eastern Europe.

Explores German engagement with the Italian Renaissance in the decades from German unification to the Weimar republic.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, advocates of protection against foreign competition prevailed in a fierce controversy over international trade. They succeeded by portraying free trade as a British ideology and French free traders as traitors. This groundbreaking study is the first to examine this 'protectionist turn' in full.

A sustained, modern exploration of the celebrated eighteenth-century Scottish historian, William Robertson (1721-1793). He stood alongside David Hume and Edward Gibbon in reputation and his histories helped shape the European consciousness.

The distinguished team of international contributors to this 2001 volume explores the relationship between the history of political thought as a discipline, and the politics, history and culture of the various nations discussed, which include the UK, the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Central and Eastern Europe.

This 1993 collection of essays, all by pre-eminent exponents of the history of political thought, explores the political ideologies of early modern Britain. Organised on a broadly chronological basis, the topics addressed reflect the themes initiated and inspired by the work of the distinguished intellectual historian J. G. A. Pocock.

Baring sheds fresh light on Derrida, one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Drawing on new archival sources, Baring provides an intellectual history of the philosophies, institutions and movements of post-war France and a new interpretation of one of the most vibrant intellectual moments of modern times.

In a vibrant contribution to the fields of global intellectual history and the history of South Asia, Christopher Bayly provides an essential background to the emergence of Indian democracy, showing how Indian thinkers used their own traditions along with Western political thought to demand justice, racial equality and political representation.

This book recovers the Scottish Enlightenment's forgotten commentary on the French Revolution. It argues that this commentary is both a major intellectual discussion in its own right and essential to our understanding of how Enlightenment philosophy and the heritage of Adam Smith were reinterpreted for post-revolutionary Europe.

A highly original account of why German and American intellectuals have been so strongly drawn to Max Weber's ideas. Of interest to scholars across a wide range of academic disciplines, as well as to those who simply want to understand why Weber mattered so much in the twentieth century.

Liberty Abroad is the first comprehensive critical study to consider the whole of John Stuart Mill's pronouncements on international relations. Varouxakis expertly combines Mill's own writings, the historical contexts in which they were produced, the political and philosophical preoccupations that prompted them, and how they were received among his contemporaries.

This book uncovers the centrality and complexity of notions of freedom in Montaigne's thought, thereby challenging prevailing accounts of the Essais as a forerunner of modern understandings of the self. It will appeal to scholars and postgraduate students of early modern intellectual history and literature, and to cultural historians and philosophers.

Toleration is an indispensable yet ambivalent concept in pluralistic societies. Is it based on mutual respect or on condescension? Why is it right to tolerate what is wrong? This book is the most comprehensive existing study of debates over toleration since antiquity and develops a theory for our time.

The Reformation changed forever how the Eucharistic sacrament was understood. This study of six canonical early modern lyric poets - Southwell, Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan and Milton - traces the literary afterlife of one of the greatest doctrinal shifts in English history, and illuminates its continued importance well into the seventeenth century.

Drawing on hundreds of sources, this innovative book combines the history of scholarship, science, philosophy and religion to demonstrate how changing ideas about the history of ancient philosophy were central to intellectual change in seventeenth-century England, a period of immense significance for the history of European science and religion.

This book analyses the laws that shaped modern European empires from medieval times to the twentieth century. Its geographical scope is global, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Poles. Fitzmaurice focuses upon the use of the law of occupation to justify and critique the appropriation of territory.