The Machiavellian Moment : Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition

The Machiavellian Moment is a classic study of the consequences for modern historical and social consciousness of the ideal of the classical republic revived by Machiavelli and other thinkers of Renaissance Italy. J.G.A. Pocock suggests that Machiavelli's prime emphasis was on the moment in which the republic confronts the problem of its own instability in time, and which he calls the "Machiavellian moment." After examining this problem in the thought of Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Giannotti, Pocock turns to the revival of republican thought in Puritan England and in Revolutionary and Federalist America. He argues that the American Revolution can be considered the last great act of civic humanism of the Renaissance. He relates the origins of modern historicism to the clash between civic, Christian, and commercial values in the thought of the eighteenth century. Pt. 1. Particularity And Time: The Conceptual Background -- I. Problem And Its Modes: Experience, Usage And Prudence -- Ii. Problem And Its Modes: Providence, Fortune And Virtue -- Iii. Problem And Its Modes: The Vita Activa And The Vivere Civile -- Pt. 2. Republic And Its Fortune: Florentine Political Thought From 1494 To 1530 -- Iv. From Bruni To Savonarola: Fortune, Venice And Apocalypse -- V. Medicean Restoration: Guicciardini And The Lesser Ottimati, 1512-1516 -- Vi. Medicean Restoration: Machiavelli's Il Principe -- Vii. Rome And Venice: Machiavelli's Discorsi And Arte Della Guerra -- Viii. Rome And Venice: Guicciardini'a Dialogo And The Problem Of Optimate Prudence -- Ix. Giannotti And Contarini: Venice As Concept And As Myth -- Pt. 3. Value And History In The Prerevolutionary Atlantic -- X. Problem Of English Machiavellism: Modes Of Civic Consciousness Before The Civil War -- Xi. Anglicization Of The Republic: Mixed Constitution, Saint And Citizen -- Xii. Anglicization Of The Republic: Court, Country And Standing Army -- Xiii. Neo-machiavellian Political Economy: The Augustan Debate Over Land, Trade And Credit -- Xiv. Eighteenth-century Debate: Virtue, Passion And Commerce -- Xv. Americanization Of Virtue: Corruption, Constitution, And Frontier. J.g.a. Pocock. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 585-600) And Index. __The Machiavellian Moment__After examining this problem in the thought of Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Giannotti, Pocock turns to the revival of republican thought in Puritan England and in Revolutionary and Federalist America. He argues that the American Revolution can be considered the last great act of civic humanism of the Renaissance. He relates the origins of modern historicism to the clash between civic, Christian, and commercial values in the thought of the eighteenth century. A SUSTAINED INTENTION throughout this book will be that of depicting early modern republican theory in the context of an emerging historicism, the product of the ideas and conceptual vocabularies which were available to medieval and Renaissance minds-such as C.S. Lewis called "Old Western"-for the purpose of dealing with particular and contingent events and with time as the dimension of contingent happenings.