A Great and Wretched City
Promise and Failure in Machiavelli’s Florentine Political Thought
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Harvard University Press
Published:10th Mar '14
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Mark Jurdjevic's A Great and Wretched City reexamines Machiavelli's political thought, revealing how his native Florence inspired his republican ideals and critiques.
In A Great and Wretched City, Mark Jurdjevic challenges the commonly held belief that Florentine politics served only as a source of negative lessons for Niccolò Machiavelli. He argues that significant elements of Machiavelli's political philosophy were deeply influenced by the complexities of his native city. Rather than solely criticizing Florence for its political failings, Machiavelli's scorn was rooted in a profound recognition of the city's unrealized potential. This duality of love and disdain shaped his writings, revealing a layered perspective on the political landscape of Florence.
Machiavelli's relationship with Florence was characterized by a blend of pride and disappointment. He often highlighted the city's political myopia, corruption, and subservience, yet he also expressed a hopeful vision for its future. Jurdjevic emphasizes that this persistent hope reflects Machiavelli's belief in Florence's capability for a transformative political renaissance. He famously described Florence as truly a great and wretched city, capturing the essence of its dual nature.
Through a close examination of Machiavelli's works, including The Prince, Discourses, correspondence, and particularly Florentine Histories, Jurdjevic unveils new insights into Machiavelli's republican ideals. He posits that many of Machiavelli's ideas were distinctly shaped by his experiences in Florence, thus enriching the ongoing discussion about his relationship with Renaissance republicanism. A Great and Wretched City ultimately seeks to redefine the narrative surrounding Machiavelli's political thought, highlighting the constructive aspects of his critique of Florence.
Wonderfully researched and deeply persuasive, this book offers us an entirely new vision of the Florentine chancellor as a man dedicated in his later years to radically reshaping his broken world. Jurdjevic not only reinterprets the man himself, but challenges our very understanding of the relationship between Renaissance individuals and the society around them. -- Michael Martoccio * H-Net Reviews *
Mark Jurdjevic’s A Great and Wretched City is a wonderful contribution to Machiavelli studies. It gives Machiavelli’s ‘Florentine writings’ their proper due, and appropriately tempers the ill-considered and much too prevalent overemphasis on Machiavelli’s admiration for Rome. The book is astoundingly erudite, penetrating analytically, and generally written with a confident elegance that makes it an unusually accessible piece of high-end scholarship. -- John P. McCormick, University of Chicago
Jurdjevic convincingly argues that two of Machiavelli’s late works, The Florentine Histories and Discourse on Florentine Affairs, constitute the culmination of a change in Machiavelli’s political thinking beginning with the Discourses on Livy. Pessimistic about the potential for individual action, Machiavelli concludes that collective structures and institutions, purposely designed to limit the impact of individual political activity, can create and preserve republican government. -- Ronald G. Witt, Duke University
- Nominated for Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize 2015
- Nominated for Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize 2015
ISBN: 9780674725461
Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 26mm
Weight: 603g
312 pages