The Garments of Court and Palace: Machiavelli and the World That He Made
by Philip Bobbitt
Books that Changed the World (10)
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Few books in the history of the world have had a stronger, more lasting, or more errant impact than Machiavelli's The Prince. Over the centuries, the ideal ruler as outlined by Machiavelli has been seen as a ruthless, immoral tyrant, but scholar and political philosopher Philip Bobbitt argues that this is a misunderstanding. He describes The Prince as one half of a masterpiece which, along with Machiavelli's often neglected Discourses, prophesied the end of the feudal era and the birth of show more the neoclassical Renaissance state. Using both Renaissance examples and cases drawn from our own era, Bobbitt shows Machiavelli's work is both profoundly moral and inherently constitutional, a turning point in our understanding of the relation between war, law, and the state.--From publisher description. show lessTags
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The Garments of Court and Palace poses an interesting challenge for me. It is essentially a review of Machiavelli’s The Prince. A 288 page review. How much more can one say? How does a reviewer review a review? Worse (or better yet), Bobbitt does in his review what readers of my reviews come to expect of me: a completely different take, with aspects and interpretations no other reviewer has caught, and which sometimes the author has missed, being mired in the trees of the forest.
The discovery here would never have occurred to me. It is that The Prince is actually a study in the evolution of constitutional government, and not a recipe for oppression and subjugation of a people. Only someone steeped in constitutional law and philosophy show more would interpret it that way, but Bobbitt makes an absolutely commanding case for it. In fact, by massaging Machiavelli into this thesis, Bobbitt solves a number of contradictions and conundrums that reviews have used to criticize Machiavelli and diminish his accomplishment with his book, which by the way, he never called The Prince.
In places, it is positively Talmudic in its incorporation of outside voices and critics. Commentators through the ages are shredded or vetted. He backs his premise thoroughly and completely, enlisting Machiavelli’s words despite centuries of them being interpreted in a completely different direction. It is fascinating.
Millions of us (had to) read The Prince in high school. Our teachers drummed into us exactly what it was about, and all our appreciation of it was framed in that context. But it’s wrong. And that makes this book compelling, valuable, and important.
I’m delighted to have come across it. show less
The discovery here would never have occurred to me. It is that The Prince is actually a study in the evolution of constitutional government, and not a recipe for oppression and subjugation of a people. Only someone steeped in constitutional law and philosophy show more would interpret it that way, but Bobbitt makes an absolutely commanding case for it. In fact, by massaging Machiavelli into this thesis, Bobbitt solves a number of contradictions and conundrums that reviews have used to criticize Machiavelli and diminish his accomplishment with his book, which by the way, he never called The Prince.
In places, it is positively Talmudic in its incorporation of outside voices and critics. Commentators through the ages are shredded or vetted. He backs his premise thoroughly and completely, enlisting Machiavelli’s words despite centuries of them being interpreted in a completely different direction. It is fascinating.
Millions of us (had to) read The Prince in high school. Our teachers drummed into us exactly what it was about, and all our appreciation of it was framed in that context. But it’s wrong. And that makes this book compelling, valuable, and important.
I’m delighted to have come across it. show less
Excellent background for the Prince
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9+ Works 1,398 Members
Philip Bobbitt teaches constitutional law at the University of Texas, where he holds the A.W. Walker Centennial Chair. He served as associate counsel to the President for intelligence and international security, Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on the Iran-Contra Affair, and Counselor on International Law at the Department of State. He lives show more in Austin, Texas. show less
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- Nonfiction, Politics and Government, History, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction, Philosophy
- DDC/MDS
- 320.1 — Society, government, & culture Political science Types of Government The State
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- JC143 .M4 .B576 — Political Science Political theory Political theory. The state. Theories of the state Modern state
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