This book examines the intersection of gender, popular culture, and presidential politics, focusing on the portrayal of women in relation to the White House. It analyzes how media representations shape public perceptions of female political figures and their roles in power. The book explores the historical context of women's involvement in presidential politics, examining the challenges and triumphs they have faced. It also considers the impact of popular culture on shaping public opinion and influencing political discourse surrounding women in leadership positions. The book offers a critical analysis of the complex relationship between gender, media, and presidential politics, providing insights into the ongoing struggle for gender equality in the political arena.
This book explores the political themes and narratives present in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It delves into the representation of power, ideology, and conflict within the films, analyzing how these elements shape the audience's understanding of political issues. The book examines the portrayal of superheroes, villains, and governments, exploring their roles in shaping the narrative and reflecting real-world political dynamics. It also considers the impact of the MCU on political discourse and public perception of political issues. The book offers a critical analysis of the MCU's political landscape, providing insights into its influence on popular culture and political engagement.
Written in the early 16th century, 'The Prince' is a realistic instruction guide for new rulers. Machiavelli argues that an effective leader must be skilled in the art of war, sometimes cruel, and willing to use deception and manipulation to achieve political goals. The book is divided into chapters that discuss various types of principalities, how to acquire and maintain power, and the qualities a prince should possess. Machiavelli uses historical examples, including the career of Cesare Borgia, to illustrate his points. The treatise emphasizes the importance of maintaining the goodwill of the people and the stability of the state, even if it means deviating from traditional virtues. 'The Prince' remains a controversial but influential work in modern political philosophy.
Fernanda Gallo's "Hegel and Italian Political Thought" examines the reception and adaptation of Georg Hegel's philosophy in 19th-century Italy. The book explores how Italian intellectuals integrated Hegelian ideas into their own political and philosophical frameworks, shaping their understanding of nation-building, state formation, and the role of the state. Gallo's work highlights the unique ways in which Hegelian concepts were reinterpreted and applied within the specific historical and cultural context of Italy, challenging traditional narratives of intellectual influence. The book also delves into the political engagement of these intellectuals, many of whom were active participants in the Italian unification process. It offers a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between philosophy, politics, and culture in shaping the modern Italian state.
Political Theorist Fernanda Gallo (Homerton College, University of Cambridge) has a fascinating new book, Hegel and Italian Political Thought: The Practice of Ideas, 1832-1900 (Cambridge UP, 2024), about how Georg Hegel’s philosophical thought made its way to Italy and how it was integrated into the various schools of thought within Italy. This is a fascinating exploration of the history of ideas, especially more recent thinking, tracing not only the ideas themselves, but the ways in which they were adapted by different theorists and cultural approaches. Gallo provides the reader with deep historical insights alongside the explication of complex theoretical understandings, noting how ideas travel across language, time, geography, and cultures. Gallo’s project here is to weave together history, politics, and ideas more fully to understand ideas in different spaces, providing a transnational perspective of Hegel’s thinking and how it evolved in other places, with other thinkers.
Italy often finds itself the “forgotten stepchild” in political theory, even though it sits at the intersection of the global North and South, as well as the global East and global West, where ideas from different parts of the world intertwine with each other. The physical space where Italy is located provides this connectivity not only between geographical regions and ideas, but it is also where goods are exchanged alongside intellectual ideas. One of the key lines of interrogation in Hegel and Italian Political Thought is how Hegelian ideas were put into practice in different parts of Italy and what those ideas looked like in practice. For Italy, given the regional distinctions and the seven different states within the peninsula in the early 1800s, Hegel’s ideas contributed to a variety of paths towards nation and state building. Gallo examines the ways in which many of the Italian intellectuals during this period were also politicians involved in their respective states, and many of them looked towards Hegel’s considerations, mixing them with Italian culture, to rethink how Italy should be structured to function as a modern nation-state, or an array of states within the nation.
Gallo and I have a great conversation about the interweaving of Hegel with Italian political thought. We also discuss the rise of the mafia in southern Italy during this period, and how this is connected to these broader ideas of the state’s monopoly on violence, issues of freedom and liberty, and how power and power vacuums contribute to the form of the state. This is a lively discussion of the history of ideas, the particular dimensions of Italy and Italian political thought and praxis, Hegel’s concepts that apply to the state, and what we can learn from how all of these components were woven together during the 19th century in the Mediterranean.
Lilly J. Goren is a professor of political science at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. She is co-editor of The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (University Press of Kansas, 2022), as well as co-editor of the award winning book, Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics (University Press of Kentucky, 2012), Email her comments at lgoren@carrollu.edu or find her at Bluesky @gorenlj.bsky.social.
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