Machiavelli's children
Subtitle: leaders and their legacies in Italy and Japan
By: Richard J. Samuels.
Publisher: Cornell University Press; University Presses Marketing [distributor]
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Ithaca
Language: eng
Number of pages: 456
ISBN-13: 9780801434921
Subjects: Political leadership -- Italy -- History -- 19th century.; Political leadership -- Italy -- History -- 20th century.; Political leadership -- Japan -- History -- 19th century.; Political leadership -- Japan -- History -- 20th century.
Description: "In this book about leadership and historical choices, Richard J. Samuels emphasizes the role of human ingenuity in political change. He draws on interviews and archival research in a fascinating series of paired biographies of political and business leaders from Italy and Japan.".

"Beginning with the founding of modern nation-states after the Meiji Restoration and the Risorgimento, Samuels traces the developmental dynamic in both countries through the failure of early liberalism, the coming of fascism, imperial adventures, defeat in wartime, and reconstruction as American allies.

Highlights of Machiavelli's Children include new accounts of the making of postwar Japanese politics - using American money and Manchukuo connections - and of the collapse of Italian political parties in the Clean Hands (Mani Pulite) scandal.

The author also tells the more recent stories of Umberto Bossi's regional experiment, the Lega Nord, the different choices made by Italian and Japanese communist party leaders after the collapse of the USSR, and the leadership of Silvio Berlusconi and Ishihara Shintaro on the contemporary right in each country."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface : leaders matter; title: Introduction : why leaders matter; title: pt. 1: Creation stories: the nineteenth century. Chasing prestige and security; title: How to build a state : Count Cavour, Itō Hirobumi, and Yamagata Aritomo; title: How to build wealth : Alessandro Rossi, Ōkubo Toshimichi, and Shibusawa Eichi; title: pt. 2: Liberal exhaustion: the early twentieth century. The death of liberalism : Giovanni Giolitti and Hara Kei; title: The birth of corporatism : Mutō Sanji, Alessandro Rossi, Kishi Nobusuke, Giovanni Agnelli, and Ayukawa Gisuke; title: The total leader : Benito Mussolini; title: pt. 3: In the American imperium: the Cold War. Chasing democracy; title: What kind of ally to be : Alcide de Gasperi and Yoshida Shigeru; title: Putting corruption in its place : Kishi Nobusuke and Amintore Fanfani; title: pt. 4: Degrees of freedom: after the Cold War. Chasing normality; title: Choices on the left : Achille Occhetto and Fuwa Tetsuzō; title: Options on the right : Umberto Bossi, Silvio Berlusconi, Ozawa Ichirō, and Ishihara Shintarō; title: Conclusion : how leaders have mattered in Italy and Japan.