The Many and the Few: Machiavelli and Guicciardini's Critique of Aristocratic Regimes - Couverture rigide

Jurdjevic, Mark

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1487566867 ISBN 13 : 9781487566869

Editeur : University of Toronto Press, 2026

Synopsis

The Many and the Few reconstructs a pattern of recurring populist themes in the writings of Francesco Guicciardini and Niccolò Machiavelli. These two pioneering thinkers of the late Renaissance are almost always presented in terms of dramatic contrasts – while Machiavelli's violent populism and scorn for aristocratic culture is well established, many consider Guicciardini the most influential Renaissance advocate of narrow, elitist regimes. In The Many and the Few, Mark Jurdjevic challenges these pre-existing beliefs and argues that Guicciardini was a vastly more complex thinker who subjected his own aristocratic ideals to devastating scrutiny.
From his very first to very last texts, Guicciardini consistently embedded an alternate narrative in which he thoroughly embraced, and arguably exceeded, Machiavelli’s view of the innately positive qualities of the people and destructive qualities of the elites. Subsequent "republican" writers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and James Madison, all claimed Guicciardini as one of the chief Renaissance exemplars of a longstanding tradition of aristocratic, senatorial politics, but The Many and the Few demonstrates that Guicciardini’s contribution was a Trojan horse: it appeared to confirm this tradition even while affirming every aspect of Machiavelli's critique.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Mark Jurdjevic is professor of history at York University and studies early modern Europe.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Toronto Press
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1487566867
• ISBN 13: 9781487566869
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible