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The Garments of Court and Palace: Machiavelli and the World He Made Main Edition
Author(s): Philip Bobbitt (Author)
- Publisher: Atlantic Books
- Publication Date: 4 July 2013
- Edition: Main
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 9781843546849
- ISBN-13: 9781843546849
Book Description
The Prince, a political treatise by the Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli, is widely regarded as the most important exploration of politics – and in particular the politics of power – ever written.
In Garments of Court and Palace, Philip Bobbitt, a preeminent and original interpreter of modern statecraft, presents a vivid portrait of Machiavelli’s Italy and demonstrates how The Prince articulates a new idea of government that emerged during the Renaissance. Bobbitt argues that when The Prince is read alongside the Discourses, modern readers can see clearly how Machiavelli prophesied the end of the feudal era and the birth of a recognizably modern polity. As this book shows, publication of The Prince in 1532 represents nothing less than a revolutionary moment in our understanding of the place of the law and war in the creation and maintenance of the modern state.
Editorial Reviews
Review
In the course of arguing for a view of Machiavelli as a constitutional theorist, Bobbitt provides a gripping account of his role in the tangled and dangerous politics of the time, including a detailed analysis of the complex role of the Borgias and the Medici… He presents a compelling picture of Machiavelli as someone unable to live by his own ideal of virtu: the vital energy a human being could use to achieve a partial victory over fate. –John Gray, New Statesman
This is far from the first attempt to rescue Machiavelli from the adjective derived from his name, put it is an especially convincing one… Serious and thoughtful –Bill Emmott, The Times
Bobbitt presents a pithy, eloquent argument for The Prince as a “constitutional tract” and Machiavelli as the “spiritual forefather” of the US Constitution… Well worth reading –Joanna Kavenna, Spectator
Bobbitt’s courageous book is the work of a thinking man. He performs a service in highlighting easily overlooked statements from Machiavelli about the need for healthy and durable forms of rule. –Blair Worden, Literary Review
A book of extraordinary ambition. –Guardian
Perhaps the most important political philosopher today. –Henry Kissinger
About the Author
Philip Bobbitt, is the Herbert Wechsler Professor of Federal Jurisprudence at Columbia University and Senior Fellow at the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas. He has served as a senior official at the White House, the State Department and the National Security Council, in both Republican and Democratic administrations. He is a Fellow of the AmericanAcademy for Arts and Sciences and has written seminal works in constitutional theory, diplomatic history and social choice.The Shield of Achilles, published in 2002, was internationally acclaimed and was named a Book of the Year by the Economist, the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian.
The Prince is his latest book.
