Machiavelli in the Spanish-Speaking Atlantic World, 1880-1940 - Edinburgh Studies in Comparative Political Theory and Intellectual History

About the Book

Explores the reception of Machiavelli's works in modern Latin America and Spanish-speaking political thought between 1880 and 1940

Book Synopsis

Combining historiography and political theory, this book compares different strands of Machiavelli's reception in South and North America, and between Hispanic America and Spain. It provides new insight into Machiavelli's writings and how they have been read in different contexts. The book analyses these readings focusing on some specific themes including: the relationship between politics and morals; the links between political power and freedom; debates about political realism; reflections on liberalism and republicanism; and conceptions of time and history. The book argues that Machiavelli had a significant impact on both liberal and anti-liberal authors from Argentina and Spain. For liberals, he represented a synonym of tyranny but also, in opposite way, he had offered a synthesis between republicanism and liberalism. For anti-liberals, he was associated with Modernity and liberalism.

Review Quotes

An extraordinary book that opens the frontiers of political thought through its analysis of Machiavelli´s influences on very important authors from the Spanish-speaking world on both sides of the ocean. It appeals to a large reading public both of researchers, intellectuals and people interested in the larger and eternal question of the relationship between European and Spanish American cultural and political interactions.--Mario Sznajder "Researcher"

This brilliant book restores the influence Machiavelli had on the modern Spanish-speaking Atlantic world. Avoiding cliché, this book reveals the debts of Liberals, Catholics and Republicans to the notions conceived from the radical autonomy of the political. By both revisiting old and posing new questions, Losada offers renewed answers, and forces us to think again about the Hispanic world's reading of Machiavelli.

-- "Ángel Duarte, Universidad de Córdoba"