HIST 115 - The Machiavellian Moment

FDR: HU, GE4b
Credits: 4
When Offered: Spring

Prerequisite: HIST 100, 101 or permission of the instructor. Is it better to be loved or feared? How much of our destiny can we control? When are societies fit for self-government? When and how must people be forced to be good? Niccolò Machiavelli, the first and most controversial modern political theorist, raises issues of universal human and political concern. Yet he did so in a very specific context–the Florence of the Medici, Michelangelo and Savonarola–at a time when Renaissance Italy stood at the summit of artistic brilliance and on the threshold of political collapse. This course draws on Machiavelli’s personal, political, historical and literary writings, and readings on history and art, as a point of entry for exploring both the Italian Renaissance and perennial issues in politics and history such as the corruption and regeneration of societies.Peterson.