Reason of State, Propaganda, and the Thirty Years' War: An Unknown Translation by Thomas Hobbes

by Noel Malcolm

Overview

Acclaimed writer and historian Noel Malcolm presents his sensational discovery of a new work by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): a propaganda pamphlet on behalf of the Habsburg side in the Thirty Years' War, translated by Hobbes from a Latin original. Malcolm's book explores a fascinating episode in seventeenth-century history, illuminating both the practice of early modern propaganda and the theory of "reason of state".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191527050
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	02/22/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	403 KB

About the Author

Noel Malcolm is a General Editor of the Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes. He has been a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, Foreign Editor of The Spectator, and political columnist of the Daily Telegraph. He left journalism in 1995 in order to concentrate on scholarly research and writing. Since then he has been a Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University, and Carlyle Lecturer at Oxford University. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2001.

Table of Contents

PrefaceA Note on Dates and Transcriptions1. Hobbes's Early Career2. The Translation: Authorship, Date, and Style3. The 'Secretissima instructio' Texts4. The Distribution of the Altera secretissima instructio in England5. Palatine Politics: Cavendish, Mansfield, and Hobbes6. 'Reason of State' and HobbesHobbes's translation of Altera secretissima instructioAltera secretissima instructioList of ManuscriptsBibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Malcolm's work contributes significantly to our understanding of both Hobbes and early modern reason of state."—Thomas Turley, Renaissance Quarterly

From the Publisher