The ship of state : statecraft and politics from ancient Greece to democratic America / Norma Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, Norma, 1959-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science--History.

Political science.

Sex role--History.

Sex role.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource (243 pages))

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This provocative and illuminating book provides a new perspective on the development of political thought from Homer to Machiavelli, Tocqueville, and Gertrude Stein (who is introduced here, for the first time, as a writer of political significance). Providing nuanced readings of key texts by these and other thinkers, Norma Thompson locates a powerful theme: that the political health of organized political communities-from the ancient polis to the modern state to contemporary democracy-requires a balance between masculine and feminine qualities. Although most critics view the Western tradition as a progression away from misogyny and toward rights for women, Thompson contends that the need for balance in the political community was well understood in earlier eras. Only now has it been almost entirely overlooked in our focus on surface indications of strict gender equality. Thompson argues that political rhetoric must once again promote the reconciliation of masculine and feminine forces in order to achieve effective politics and statecraft.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction

One. Stories at the Limits

Two. Plato's Socrates

Three. The Rhetoric of the State

Four. Rousseau/Tutor

Five. Surveying Tocqueville

Six. Gertrude Stein's Socrates

Conclusion: Redressing the Balance

Afterword

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-235) and index.

ISBN:

9786611729950

9781281729958

1281729957

9780300128055

0300128053

OCLC:

1024012431