The first of three volumes of essays by Quentin Skinner, one of the world's leading intellectual historians. This collection includes some of his most important philosophical and methodological statements written over the past four decades, each carefully revised for publication in this form. In a series of seminal essays Professor Skinner sets forth the intellectual principles that inform his work. Writing as a practising historian, he considers the theoretical difficulties inherent in the pursuit of knowledge and interpretation, and elucidates the methodology which finds its expression in his two successive volumes. All of Professor Skinner's work is characterised by philosophical power, limpid clarity, and elegance of exposition; these essays, many of which are now recognised classics, provide a fascinating and convenient digest of the development of his thought. Professor Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http://www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474

Niccolo Machiavelli taught that political leaders must be prepared to do evil that good may come of it, and his name has been a byword ever since for duplicity and immorality. Is his sinister reputation deserved? In answering this question Quentin Skinner focuses on three major works, "The Prince", "the Discourses", and "The History of Florence", and distils from them an introduction to Machiavelli's doctrines of exemplary clarity.

Amongst intellectuals and activists, neoliberalism has become a potent signifier for the kind of free-market thinking that has dominated politics for the past three decades. Forever associated with the conviction politics of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, the free-market project has since become synonymous with the 'Washington consensus' on international development policy and the phenomenon of corporate globalization, where it has come to mean privatization, deregulation, and the opening up of new markets. But beyond its utility as a protest slogan or buzzword as shorthand for the political-economic Zeitgeist, what do we know about where neoliberalism came from and how it spread? Who are the neoliberals, and why do they studiously avoid the label? Constructions of Neoliberal Reason presents a radical critique of the free-market project, from its origins in the first half of the 20th Century through to the recent global economic crisis, from the utopian dreams of Friedrich von Hayek through the dogmatic theories of the Chicago School to the hope and hubris of Obamanomics. The book traces how neoliberalism went from crank science to common sense in the period between the Great Depression and the age of Obama. Constructions of Neoliberal Reason dramatizes the rise of neoliberalism and its uneven spread as an intellectual, political, and cultural project, combining genealogical analysis with situated case studies of formative moments throughout the world, like New York City's bankruptcy, Hurricane Katrina, and the Wall Street crisis of 2008. The book names and tracks some of neoliberalism's key protagonists, as well as some of the less visible bit-part players. It explores how this adaptive regime of market rule was produced and reproduced, its logics and limits, its faults and its fate.

Neoliberalism--the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action--has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Writing for a wide audience, David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism
and The Condition of Postmodernity, here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. Through critical engagement with this history, he constructs a framework, not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now
surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for the more socially just alternatives being advocated by many oppositional movements.

20世纪70年代初，本书首次面世时，美国正处于危机之中：理查德?尼克松不光彩地辞去总统职务，越南战争正走向灾难性的结局，大学正从学问的殿堂堕落成疯人院……
在世人大多对美国的未来感到沮丧时，作为当代保守主义运动的思想导师，柯克却满怀希望地期盼美国秩序的复兴，将其根基牢牢锚定在《旧约》中的先知时代，上下纵横三千多年，不无洞见地指出，从古希腊罗马到基督教的中世纪和宗教改革，西方历史的演变过程时时都在酝酿美国秩序的种子：耶路撒冷的信仰和伦理、雅典的理性与荣耀、罗马的美德与力量、伦敦的法律与市场，所有这一切都将融汇到由清教徒肇始的美国秩序之中。
在柯克看来，美国的成功之道似乎可以概括如下：宗教信念派生出有秩序的自由观；有秩序的自由观派生出自由市场和有限政府的制度安排；自由市场和有限政府的制度安排则为美国经济、社会和个人活力的发挥提供了尽可能多的保障。
柯克念兹在兹的是，让美国保持自由和繁荣的那些永恒之道，而这些永恒之道就蕴藏在美国和西方文明的传统之中。

在我们常人眼里，美国政制是当今天下的最佳政制。理由很简单：那里的人民生活得最为富足和自由，每个人享有充分的自然权利，国家还如此强大。即便在受过大学教育的绝大多数中国人甚至各行学者眼里，这一点也毋庸置疑。
在美国同样如此。与我们不同的是，在美国学界，从事政治哲学研究的极少数业内人士心中有数：关于美国立国原则的政治哲学探究所引发的历史性争议是非未定，以至于美国政制的德性品质是优是劣，迄今尚无定论。在我国学界，也有极少数人觉得，美国政制并非当今天下的最佳政制，却未必清楚问题究竟怎么回事。本稿尝试考察英美学界半个多世纪以来围绕美国立国原则的持续论争，以便我们对这个问题本身也有所认识。
施特劳斯学派与剑桥学派的对峙，是这场持续论争的集中体现，迄今仍是引人注目的学术大事件。施特劳斯筚路蓝缕的政治哲学史研究取向，回到苏格拉底问题从头开始，力图在古典哲学的基础上捋清整个西方政治思想史的来龙去脉，重启“古今之争”，由此切入美国政制问题。剑桥学派以倡导政治话语史研究对抗施特劳斯派的政治哲学史研究，从近代西方的革命造反精神出发，致力打造一种名为“新古典共和主义”的现代政治思想传统，挑战美国立国原则的正统解释，并在现实层面积极推动公民参与式的直接民主。奇妙的是，剑桥学派宣称，他们提倡“公民共和主义”其实是在复兴一种被历史浧埋的“古代人的自由观”，从而也是在重启“古今之争”。
无论施特劳斯学派还是剑桥学派，都不是没有大政治关切的实证式的思想史研究。晚近十五年来，这两派的主要文献已经陆续译成中文，有目共睹，却未引起学界足够关注。究竟什么是“古今之争”？美国的立国原则与“古今之争”是什么关系？我们不应该觉得这样的问题事不关己。毕竟，我们不仅置身于自己的“古今之争”，而且同样面临两种精神品质的人文学问的“选边站”，除非我们不理会随着“改革开放”的深入必然会出现的情形：“自上而下的启蒙”与“自下的政治自由”的赛跑正在加速。本稿将以施特劳斯学派与剑桥学派在解释美国立国原则的德性基础时的尖锐对立为观察点，展示双方在涉及西方政治思想史的性质、目的和方法等方面所呈现出来的精神品质差异。