1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910451822803321

Autore

Thompson Norma <1959->

Titolo

The ship of state [[electronic resource] ] : statecraft and politics from ancient Greece to democratic America / / Norma Thompson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2001

ISBN

1-281-72995-7

9786611729950

0-300-12805-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (1 online resource (243 p.))

Disciplina

320

Soggetti

Political science - History

Sex role - History

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.