Statesmanship
Subtitle: six modern illustrations of a modified ancient ideal
By: Wendell John Coats, Jr.
Publisher: Susquehanna University Press; Associated University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Selinsgrove; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 150
Subjects: Political science -- History.; Liberalism -- History.; Statesmen -- Case studies.
Description: Statesmanship investigates the applicability of the ancient Greco-Roman arts of statemanship and oratory to the liberal polities of the past two centuries.

It begins with an investigation of ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero on statesmanship; surveys obstacles and complications introduced for this art by Christianity, modern science and technology, and modern economics; and inspects the possibilities of the practice of this ancient art - even in diluted and truncated form - in modern conditions of social complexity, vast size, and compartmentalization.

Then, in an attempt to shed light on the questions raised in the theoretical discussion, the book moves to a series of case studies beginning with George Washington and Alexander Hamilton and ending with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. These chapters are intended both to illustrate aspects of statesmanship and their applicability to modern circumstances, as well as to offer occasional appraisal and criticism of the leaders being scrutinized.

The final chapter rehearses the essential conditions for the practice of statesmanship and politics, focusing especially on the role of rhetoric or persuasive utterance and on the relationship of politics to armed force.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-148) and index.