The Princes of Orange

The Princes of Orange
Author: Herbert H. Rowen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1990-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521396530

This major study provides the first comprehensive assessment of an important European institution, the Stadholderate of the Dutch Republic. Professor Rowen looks at the career of each Prince of Orange in turn, from William I ('The Silent'), to the last and saddest, William V, examining their roles as Stadholder and interweaving their personal lives and characters with the development of the institution. Without engaging in psycho-history, Rowen treats the individual personality of each Stadholder as a significant factor, and shows how the Stadholderate contributed to a distinctive political and constitutional coloration that rendered the United Provinces unique in Europe. The work assesses the contribution of the Stadholderate to the rise and subsequent fall of the Dutch Republic as one of the great powers of early modern Europe, and analyses each prince within his contemporary context, avoiding the highly present-minded approach of many of the Republic's subsequent historians. The Princes of Orange is thus neither a work of hagiography, glorifying the Dutch royal house, nor a piece of destructive iconoclasm, but an authoritative account of a most unusual political, dynastic and diplomatic institution.

Public Offices, Personal Demands

Public Offices, Personal Demands
Author: Jan Hartman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2009-05-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443810967

Public Offices, Personal Demands presents a novel perspective on European politics in the seventeenth-century. Its focus lies on the Dutch Republic, that surprising anomaly, often described as a miracle or enigma, admired by many during this age. This collection of essays explores one of the most fundamental questions of seventeenth-century governance: what makes a person capable for office? Contemporary viewpoints are discussed by a range of scholars from different historical disciplines. As this volume shows, debates about capability and office-holding were by no means restricted to political theorists. Scientists, citizens and merchants all discussed these matters in a similar vein. Nor was this heated discussion about who was fit govern a typically Dutch phenomenon. Because of its multifaceted and international approach, this book will appeal to both scholars and students in the fields of cultural and social history, the history of political thought, the history of early modern politics, and the history of science.

European Political Thought 1450-1700

European Political Thought 1450-1700
Author: Howell A. Lloyd
Publisher:
Total Pages: 680
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN:

"This is the only fully comprehensive account of European political thought in the early modern era; the first in English that pays due regard to Hungary, to Poland-Lithuania and to the Scandinavian kingdoms; and the first that encompasses the realm of Eastern Orthodoxy, specifically through the case of Muscovy. The book embraces the political thought of Islam, both a seminal influence upon the political consciousness of what 'Europe' was becoming and a military threat to the rest of the continent, and places all within a geographic rather than a chronological structure."--BOOK JACKET.

A History of Histories

A History of Histories
Author: John Burrow
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 525
Release: 2008-04-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307268527

Treating the practice of history not as an isolated pursuit but as an aspect of human society and an essential part of the culture of the West, John Burrow magnificently brings to life and explains the distinctive qualities found in the work of historians from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks to the present. With a light step and graceful narrative, he gathers together over 2,500 years of the moments and decisions that have helped create Western identity. This unique approach is an incredible lens with which to view the past. Standing alone in its ambition, scale and fascination, Burrow's history of history is certain to stand the test of time.

Maxims and Reflections (Ricordi)

Maxims and Reflections (Ricordi)
Author: Francesco Guicciardini
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 1965
Genre: History
ISBN:

Review: "Unlike Machiavelli-inveterate dreamer and cynic-Guicciardini's mind is remarkable for the balance and masterly coolness of its judgment."-Federico Chabod "In the history of Renaissance thought, Guicciardini's Ricordi occupy a place of singular importance. Few works of the sixteenth century allow us so penetrating an insight into the views and sentiments of its author as these reflections of the great Italian historian. . . . Like Machiavelli's Prince, the Ricordi form one of the outstanding documents of a time of crisis and transition; but unlike the Prince, they range over a wide field of private as well as public life. In doing so, they revel the man as well as the political theorist."-Nicolai Rubenstein, from the Introduction.

Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition

Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition
Author: Torrey James Luce
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2014-07-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400863368

In this volume distinguished scholars from both sides of the Atlantic explore the work of Tacitus in its historical and literary context and also show how his text was interpreted in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Discussed here, for example, are the ways predilections of a particular age color one's reading of a complex author and why a reexamination of these influences is necessary to understand both the author and those who have interpreted him. All of the essays were first prepared for a colloquium on Tacitus held at Princeton University in March 1990. The resulting volume is dedicated to the memory of the great Tacitean scholar Sir Ronald Syme. The contributors are G. W. Bowersock ("Tacitus and the Province of Asia"), T. J. Luce ("Reading and Response in the Dialogus"), Elizabeth Keitel ("Speech and Narrative in Histories 4"), Christopher Pelling ("Tacitus and Germanicus"), Judith Ginsburg ("In maiores certamina: Past and Present in the Annals"), A. J. Woodman ("Amateur Dramatics at the Court of Nero"), Mark Morford ("Tacitean Prudentia and the Doctrines of Justus Lipsius"), Donald R. Kelley ("Tacitus Noster: The Germania in the Renaissance and Reformation"), and Howard D. Weinbrot ("Politics, Taste, and National Identity: Some Uses of Tacitism in Eighteenth-Century Britain"). Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.