Among the theses that for centuries have ensured Niccolò Machiavelli an ambiguous fame, a special place goes to his extremely positive opinion of social conflicts, and, more in particular, to the claim that in ancient Rome 'the disunion between the plebs and the Roman senate made that republic free and powerful'. Contrary to a long tradition that had always highly valued civic concord, Machiavelli thought that - at least under certain conditions - internecine discord could be a source of strength (...) and not of weakness, and built upon this daring proposition an original vision of political order. Machiavelli in Tumult is the first book-length study entirely devoted to analyzing this idea, its ancient roots, its enduring influence up until the American and the French Revolution, and its relevance for contemporary political theory. (shrink)

1. At the end of February 2024, the University of Chicago invited Gabriele Pedullà to discuss his new book, On Niccolò Machiavelli: The Bonds of Politics.1 Anyone who encounters the book will immed...

While being an important tile of Jameson’s whole theoretical project, Allegory and Ideology leaves some key questions not fully answered. Briefly put, these questions concern the meanings and limits of allegory; the unstable relationship between allegory and allegoresis in the Western cultural tradition; and the special place allegory plays or could play in postmodern culture. Solving these problems – in the footsteps of Jameson’s magisterial inquiry – will be crucial especially for Marxist critics.

Perry Anderson se charge d’expliciter lui-même le sens de son dernier recueil d’essais, Spectrum : « On peut le considérer comme une sorte de travelling qui, se déplaçant de droite à gauche, éclaircit un paysage intellectuel particulier. […] Voilà le spectre auquel fait allusion le titre. » Il y a toutefois de bonnes raisons de proposer une autre lecture. Étant donné que le grand thème unificateur de ces essais, parus à l’origine entre 1992 et 2005 en différents lieux, est le (...) monde des idées .. (shrink)