Description: This is the first comprehensive exploration of ancient and modern tyranny in the history of political thought. Waller R. Newell argues that modern tyranny and statecraft differ fundamentally from the classical understanding. Newell demonstrates a historical shift in emphasis from the classical thinkers' stress on the virtuous character of rulers and the need for civic education to the modern emphasis on impersonal institutions and cold-blooded political method. The turning point is Machiavelli's call for the conquest of nature. Newell traces the lines of influence from Machiavelli's new science of politics to the rise of Atlanticist republicanism in England and America, as well as the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century and their effects on the present. By diagnosing the varieties of tyranny from erotic voluptuaries like Nero, the steely determination of reforming conquerors like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar and modernizing despots such as Napoleon and Ataturk to the collectivist revolutions of the Jacobins, Bolsheviks, Nazis, and Khmer Rouge, Newell shows how tyranny is every bit as dangerous to free democratic societies today as it was in the past.
Brief description: Waller R. Newell is Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Carleton University. He is the author of The Soul of a Leader: Character, Conviction, and Ten Lessons in Political Greatness (2009), The Code of Man: Love, Courage, Pride, Family, Country (2003) and Ruling Passion: The Erotics of Statecraft in Platonic Political Philosophy (2000).
Review Quotes: "Learned, searching essays directed toward the recovery of the notion of tyranny from Machiavelli's almost successful attempt to suppress it. Anyone who wants to understand modern politics will profit from Waller Newell's eye-opening analysis."
Harvey Mansfield, Harvard University and Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California