The Reason of State (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

Botero, Giovanni

ISBN 10: 131650672X / ISBN 13: 9781316506721

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017

About this Item

Print on Demand pp. 274.

Seller Inventory # 370641599

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Reason of State (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 131650672X
• ISBN 13: 9781316506721
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Niccolò Machiavelli's seminal work, The Prince, argued that a ruler could not govern morally and be successful. Giovanni Botero disputed this argument and proposed a system for the maintenance and expansion of a state that remained moral in character. Founding an anti-Machiavellian tradition that aimed to refute Machiavelli in practice, Botero is an important figure in early modern political thought, though he remains relatively unknown. His most notable work, Della ragion di Stato, first popularised the term 'reason of state' and made a significant contribution to a major political debate of the time - the perennial issue of the relationship between politics and morality - and the book became a political 'bestseller' in the late sixteenth and the seventeenth century. This translation of the 1589 volume introduces Botero to a wider Anglophone readership and extends this influential text to a modern audience of students and scholars of political thought.

About the Author

Robert Bireley is Professor of History Emeritus at Loyola University, Chicago, and has received fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the National Humanities Center in North Carolina. Recent works include Ferdinand II: Counter-Reformation Emperor, 1578–1637 (Cambridge, 2014).