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ALMOST A QUARTER CENTURY BEFORE THE ATHENIANS TRIED SOCRATES FOR IMPIETY AND FOR CORRUPTING THE YOUTH, ARISTOPHANES, THE COMIC POET, HAD MADE SIMILAR ACCUSATIONS AGAINST HIM IN HIS PLAY, THE CLOUDS. READING PLATO'S APOLOGY, THE PRINCIPAL ACCOUNT OF SOCRATES' TRIAL, ALONGSIDE THE CLOUDS, MICHAEL ZUCKERT OBSERVES THAT THE TWO WORKS ARE SIMILAR IN STRUCTURE, AND THAT THE APOLOGY IS A RESPONSE TO ARISTOPHANES' CLAIM, IMPLICIT IN HIS CRITICISM OF SOCRATES' THAT RATIONALISM IS POLITICALLY IRRESPONSIBLE IN ADDITION TO BEING DEFECTIVE AS AN AVENUE TO KNOWLEDGE. THE STRUCTURAL SIMILARITY MAY ALSO AID OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHY SOCRATES DEFENSE FAILED, A MATTER THAT HAS TROUBLED STUDENTS SINCE ANTIQUITY.

The perpetuation address : the tragedy of America -- The temperance address : playing with fire -- Mr. Lincoln goes to Washington -- A giant with feet of clay -- The faith of our fathers : Lincoln's case for the Declaration -- Legality and legitimacy in the Dred Scott case -- The concept of Dred : facing the abyss of Dred Scott v. Sandford -- Man the miner, man the farmer -- Dividing the House -- In the sahadow of the House divided : Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 -- In the shadow of the Harper's essay : Lincoln Douglas debates of 1859-1860 -- Secession and democratic sovereignty -- And the war came -- Lincoln's constitutionalism -- De(a)dication -- On the Second inaugural address.

"What exactly makes someone a "statesman"? Is a statesman, as it is commonly said, just a dead politician? There is something inherently ambiguous and complex in the notion of statesmanship, and the contributors to this volume attempt to elucidate this ambiguity by considering the statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln. Of all American historical political leaders, Lincoln is probably the most likely candidate for the title of statesman, yet there is also a consistent undercurrent of doubt about Lincoln, amounting in some cases to serious reservations about the quality of his political leadership, and much of this doubt stems from uncertainty or doubt about the concept of statesmanship altogether. The contributors to Lincoln and Democratic Statesmanship argue that the concept is meaningful and that Lincoln represents a democratic form of statesmanship, in the sense that he pursued and achieved a great public good in democratic governance"--

In Natural Rights and the New Republicanism, Michael Zuckert proposes a new view of the political philosophy that lay behind the founding of the United States. In a book that will interest political scientists, historians, and philosophers, Zuckert looks at the Whig or opposition tradition as it developed in England. He argues that there were, in fact, three opposition traditions: Protestant, Grotian, and Lockean. Before the English Civil War the opposition was inspired by the effort to find the "one true Protestant politics--an effort that was seen to be a failure by the end of the Interregn

In Natural Rights and the New Republicanism, Michael Zuckert proposes a new view of the political philosophy that lay behind the founding of the United States. In a book that will interest political scientists, historians, and philosophers, Zuckert looks at the Whig or opposition tradition as it developed in England. He argues that there were, in fact, three opposition traditions: Protestant, Grotian, and Lockean. Before the English Civil War the opposition was inspired by the effort to find the "one true Protestant politics "--An effort that was seen to be a failure by the end of the Interregnum period. The Restoration saw the emergence of the Whigs, who sought a way to ground politics free from the sectarian theological-scriptural conflicts of the previous period. The Whigs were particularly influenced by the Dutch natural law philosopher Hugo Grotius. However, as Zuckert shows, by the mid-eighteenth century John Locke had replaced Grotius as the philosopher of the Whigs. Zuckert's analysis concludes with a penetrating examination of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, the English "Cato," who, he argues, brought together Lockean political philosophy and pre-existing Whig political science into a new and powerful synthesis. Although it has been misleadingly presented as a separate "classical republican" tradition in recent scholarly discussions, it is this "new republicanism" that served as the philosophical point of departure for the founders of the American republic

AbstractAs in all or almost all Shakespeare plays the opening scenes of Macbeth are key to setting up the problem the play addresses. In his Scottish play Shakespeare uses the opening scenes to set the two main contexts in which the regicide, usurpation, tyranny, and fall of the tyrant occur. The two are, we might say, the earthly or political context and the cosmic or superhuman context represented by the witches. In presenting these two contexts Shakespeare appears to be engaging in a dialogue with Machiavelli's Prince, taking cues from Machiavelli's political analysis on how to understand the political character of Scotland and taking issue with Machiavelli's ultimate agenda of a conquest of Fortuna.