This book examines politics through the lens of art and literature. Through discussion on great works of visual art, literature, and cultural representations of political thought in the medieval, early modern, and American eras, it explores the relevance of the nation-state to human freedom and flourishing.
The volume:
* Presents a systematic understanding of core pollical concepts
* Explores key thinkers such as Aristotle, Cicero, Hobbes, Locke Rousseau, de Tocqueville, Nietzsche, Arendt, Weil, Grant, Manent
* Will be invaluable to students and teachers of political science, especially political theory and philosophy
Ann Ward is Professor of Political Science at Baylor University, USA. Her research interests are ancient political philosophy, especially Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, and nineteenth-century political thought. Ward's most recent book is The Socratic Individual: Philosophy, Faith and Freedom in a Democratic Age (2020). She is also the author of Contemplating Friendship in Aristotle's Ethics (2016), and Herodotus and the Philosophy of Empire (2008). She has edited Classical Rationalism and the Politics of Europe (2017), Socrates and Dionysus: Philosophy and Art in Dialogue (2013), Matter and Form: From Natural Science to Political Philosophy (2009), and Socrates: Reason or Unreason as the Foundation of European Identity (2007). She has co-edited with Lee Ward Natural Right and Political Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Catherine Zuckert and Michael Zuckert (2013), and The Ashgate Research Companion to Federalism (2009). She has published widely in scholarly journals, including POLIS: The Journal of the Society for Ancient Greek Political Thought, Perspectives on Political Science, European Journal of Political Theory, and The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms.
Introduction: The Artistic Foundations of Nations and Citizens: Art, Literature, and the Political Community. Part I: Political Foundation, Citizen Virtue, and Nation in Visual Art 1. The Bayeux Tapestry: Nationalism Before Nations and Globes 2. Justice, Peace, and the Common Good in Trecento Siena: A Political Study of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Ben Comune 3. J.W.M. Turner and Painting Politics: The Beauty of Britain Part II: Republicanism, Statesmanship, and Nation-Building in the Plays of William Shakespeare 4. Eros and Ordered Consent in A Midsummer Night's Dream 5. The Stagings and Statesmanship of Shakespeare's Henry V 6. What is a Nation? Shakespeare's Reflections on Nation-Building in the Plays of Henry VI Part III: The Early Modern and Contemporary Critique of Liberalism and Globalism 7. Violence and Colonial Politics in Aphra Behn's Oroonoko 8. Swift's Criticism of the Narrative of Progress in Gulliver's Voyage to Laputa 9. Judith Hermann's Nichts als Gespenster: Globality, Ambient Romance and Identity Tourism Part IV: Reflections on Nationalism in the American Political Novel 10. Neither Patriot Nor Saint: The Theological Implications of Twain's Portrait of Nationalism in Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc