An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Machiavelli. In On Machiavelli: The Search for Glory, Alan Ryan illuminates the political and philosophical complexities of the often-reviled godfather of realpolitik. Thought by some to be the founder of Italian nationalism, regarded by others to be a reviver of the Roman Republic as a model for the modern Western world, Machiavelli remains a contentious figure. Often outraging popular opinion with his insistence on the amoral nature of power, Machiavelli eschewed the world as it ought to be in favor of a forthright appraisal of the one that is. Perhaps more than any other thinker, Machiavelli has suffered from being taken out of context, and Ryan places him squarely within his own time and the politics of a Renaissance Italy riven by near-constant warfare among rival city-states and the papacy. A well-educated son of Florence, Machiavelli was originally in charge of the Florentine Republic’s militia, but in 1512 the city fell to papal forces led by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, who thus restored the Medici family to power. Machiavelli was accused of conspiracy, imprisoned, tortured, and eventually exiled from his beloved Florence, and it was during this period that he produced his most famous works. While attempting to ingratiate himself to the Medicis, the historically minded Machiavelli looked to the imperial ambitions and past glories of the Roman Republic as a contrast to the perceived failures of his contemporaries.For Machiavelli, the hunger for power and glory was inextricable from human nature, and any serious attempt to rule must take this into account. In his revolutionary The Prince and Discourses―both excerpted here―Machiavelli created the first truly modern analysis of power.

Product Description: An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Aristotle. In On Aristotle: Saving Politics from Philosophy, Alan Ryan examines Plato's most famous student and sharpest critic, whose writing has helped shape over two millennia of Western philosophy, science, and religion...read more

Tocqueville’s gifts as an observer and commentator on American life and democracy are brought to vivid life in this splendid volume. In On Tocqueville, Alan Ryan brilliantly illuminates the observations of the French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, who first journeyed to the United States in 1831 and went on to catalog the unique features of the American social contract in his two-volume masterpiece, Democracy in America. Often thought of as the father of "American Exceptionalism," Tocqueville sought to observe the social conditions of emerging political equality in America, "a river that may be channeled but cannot be stopped in its course." In choosing America, he posed a central question of how a moderate, stable, and constitutional government is to be maintained in the wake of a revolution. As a dispassionate visitor, Tocqueville wanted to discover the social, moral, and economic arrangements that made liberty and self-government possible. In doing so, Tocqueville made a number of prescient observations about American life―whether it be the contrast between equality and liberty or Americans’ belief that they all belong to the middle class―that remain as relevant today as when they were first written. While Tocqueville is often praised by both conservatives and liberals, either for his distrust of big government and fondness for decentralized power or for his concern with association and community, both tend to overlook his contempt for the “coarse appearance” of the individual members of Congress as well as his enthusiasm for the brutal nature of our prison system. Alan Ryan examines the often complicated and elusive Democracy in America, tracing the influence of writers such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Guizot, and explaining Tocqueville’s original conceptions of equality and individualism within their historical context. In Ryan’s hands, On Tocqueville becomes the perfect introduction and guide to Democracy in America.On Tocqueville: Democracy and America features:• a chronology of Alexis de Tocqueville's life• an introduction and text by Alan Ryan that provides crucial context and cogent analysis• key excerpts from Democracy in America

Product Description: A lucid introduction to the philosophical complexities and the practical limits of the political thought of Karl Marx. When Karl Marx was buried at Highgate Cemetery in North London in 1883, his longtime friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels, remarked that he was "above all a revolutionary...read more

Product Description: The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill took thirty years to complete and is acknowledged as the definitive edition of J.S. Mill and as one of the finest works editions ever completed. Mill's contributions to philosophy, economics, and history, and in the roles of scholar, politician and journalist can hardly be overstated and this edition remains the only reliable version of the full range of Mill's writings...read more

Product Description: Analyses the role of modern soldiers in the new age of technological warfare, and the stresses they encounter. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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An anthology of travel writing about South Africa offers accounts dating from 1850 to the present, and includes writings by G.H. Mason, Mark Twain, P.J. O'Rourke, and Michael Palin

A Princeton University professor analyzes the battle over the curriculum and 'political correctness' in higher education, arguing that colleges have been asked to restore democracy and rehumanize workers--tasks too large and ill-defined for their resources. (view table of contents)

An anthology of travel writing about Alaska offers twenty-eight accounts dating from 1879 to the present, and includes writings by John Muir, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Charles Kuralt, Ernie Pyle, and John McPhee

An anthology of travel writing about Cuba offers twenty-three accounts dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and includes writings by Anthony Trollope, John Muir, Anais Nin, Langston Hughes, Graham Greene, Tommy Lasorda, and Amiri Baraka

Product Description: This long-anticipated Norton Critical Edition represents an extensive revision of its predecessor, On Liberty, edited by the late David Spitz. Alan Ryan's provocative introduction lays out the central issues debated by John Stuart Mill's many interpreters; in addition, it assesses Mill's historical significance and provides a brief account of his life...read more

A collection of eyewitness accounts offers a descriptive tour of Mexico from Cabo San Lucas to Mexico City to Yucatan, and features the observations of such writers as D. H. Lawrence, Paul Theroux, Langston Hughes, and John Steinbeck. Original.

Explores Russell's activities as a polemicist, agitator, educator, and popularizer and discusses the evolution of his moral philosophy and its application, including his final battle against American intervention in Vietnam

Product Description: This collection of essays by philosophers, political theorists and social critics ranges over two millennia, from the ideas of Plato and Aristotle to those of contemporary thinks such as John Rawls and Robert Noziak, and examines the nature of justice, its importance in human life and its place among the other virtues...read more