EverScholar Course: Machiavelli’s Continuous Renaissance – WAITLIST SIGNUP

EverScholar Course: Machiavelli’s Continuous Renaissance – WAITLIST SIGNUP

$0.00

October 9-12, 2025

Cambridge/Boston, MA

Faculty: Professors Steven B. Smith, David Ragazzoni, Francesca Trivellato, Vickie Sullivan, and Michelle Clarke

 

THIS COURSE IS FULL; WE ARE ACCEPTING WAITLIST SIGNUPS. TO ACCOMPLISH THIS:

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NOTE: IT IS STILL POSSIBLE THAT SOME PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO BE ADMITTED TO THE CLASS OFF OF THE WAITLIST.  PLEASE SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST. 

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Course fees:  $2395 (if admitted off of Wait List).  All meals, tuition, readings, event tickets, and in-course transportation (that is, other than getting to and from the Boston area) are included in the course fees. Housing is not included, but EverScholar has arranged a block of discounted rooms and the code will be provided upon registration.

 

Description

Machiavelli’s Continuous Renaissance – WAITLIST SIGNUP

Professors: Steven B. Smith, David Ragazzoni, Vickie Sullivan, Francesca Trivellato, and Michelle Clarke

October 9-12, 2025

Cambridge/Boston, MA

Widely associated with the idea of power politics, Machiavelli’s name has become synonymous with deceit, cunning, lying, and betrayal. He is conventionally associated with a hard-hearted realism, and a belief that what ultimately matters in politics is the ability of leaders to prove successful, no matter how ruthless their actions might be. 

Our purpose in this course will be to explore the many dimensions of Machiavelli’s novelty, reclaiming its complexity and nuance against simplistic and one-dimensional readings.  We will analyze and compare his different writings (The Prince, Discourses on Livy, Florentine Histories, among others) against the backdrop of Renaissance Florence and its political and intellectual history under the (in)famous Medici dynasty. We will study Machiavelli’s ideas on political founding, greatness and decline, the relationship between morality and politics, the importance of public opinion for political leaders, and the role of chance and virtù in human affairs. We will discuss his views on socio-economic conflict in ancient and modern republics, the nature and perils of factions, the role of religion in politics, and his overall philosophy of history. Finally, we will trace the afterlives of his ideas both in political philosophy and on the battleground of political ideologies over the centuries, discussing countless appropriations, (mis)readings, and critical encounters with his work into our present.

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