Customer Reviews

Publishing The Prince: History, Reading, and the Birth of Political Criticism

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Soll is a scholar of political culture and information culture, which is a critical relationship these days, both at home and abroad. Soll specializes in the early modern period, and the surprise of this sophisticated, elegantly written book is that French humanist political culture came into being as an instrument of monarchical absolutism and evolved over time into radical, Enlightened political criticism. (Perhaps there is hope for top-down democratization, after all.) "Publishing the Prince" is erudite, but compulsively readable -- a rare partnership in the academic book market -- and an eye-opener into the origins of grand political arrangements many of us take for granted.

In today's world, political criticism is everywhere. We're saturated by it on television, in blogs, in newspapers, but we also take it for granted as one of our freedoms of expression guaranteed to us in our Constitution. The goal of Publishing the Prince is to trace the history of political criticism--where did it come from, who are its forefathers?

Dr. Soll utilized the career of an important editor and translator in late fifteenth century France to tell the story-- Abraham-Nicohlas Amelot de La Houssaye created the first French translations of Machiavelli's the Prince and a Jesuit work which he called L'Homme de Cour (The Man of the Court). Amelot did more than translate them, but inserted his own commentary and introductions. He was the first editor and controlled how they appeared to their new audiences. He also translated other important humanist works, spreading his own ideas by hiding behind accepted authors. He escaped the censorship this way.

This is not a work meant for the general public -- the author clearly expects the reader to be acquainted with the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the history of the French and humanism. If you aren't familiar with any of this, it's difficult to place the book in its correct historical context and its importance will be lost. After reading this book, I count myself even more grateful to have had the opportunity to study under Dr. Soll at Rutgers University.

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