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A Cosmopolitanism of Nations: Giuseppe Mazzini's Writings on Democracy, Nation Building, and International Relations
This anthology gathers Giuseppe Mazzini's most important essays on democracy, nation building, and international relations, including some that have never before been translated into English. These neglected writings remind us why Mazzini was one of the most influential political thinkers of the nineteenth century--and why there is still great benefit to be derived from a careful analysis of what he had to say. Mazzini (1805-1872) is best known today as the inspirational leader of the Italian Risorgimento. But, as this book demonstrates, he also made a vital contribution to the development of modern democratic and liberal internationalist thought. In fact, Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati make the case that Mazzini ought to be recognized as the founding figure of what has come to be known as liberal Wilsonianism.
The writings collected here show how Mazzini developed a sophisticated theory of democratic nation building--one that illustrates why democracy cannot be successfully imposed through military intervention from the outside. He also speculated, much more explicitly than Immanuel Kant, about how popular participation and self-rule within independent nation-states might result in lasting peace among democracies. In short, Mazzini believed that universal aspirations toward human freedom, equality, and international peace could best be realized through independent nation-states with homegrown democratic institutions. He thus envisioned what one might today call a genuine cosmopolitanism of nations.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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November 10, 2025
There are many aspects of European history of which I am unaware. I had never before this past summer encountered the Italian journalist and activist Giuseppe Mazzini who in the early to mid-19th century had advocated for a unified Italian peninsula as a Republic, consolidating the various kingdoms, duchies, and papal states into a single Nation.
Several of the letters and essays and musings translated and printed into this anthology were fairly interesting, while others I found dry and, to me, personally, lacking in appeal. Whether the ensuing 200 years of European history and my sense of it has dulled the edge of those writings, I do not know, but there were enough 'gems' in the text for me to appreciate the overall sense of what Mazzini had been attempting to achieve.
From his call for the democratization and unification of the peninsula under a national republic, to his condemnation of monarchical and hereditary regimes, this small volume's contents reinforce the idea that one should 'always continue to learn."
A couple of interesting quotes:
"...Mazzini's pluralistic and bottom-up view of international relations...that domestic and transnational societal actors have the ability to actively shape foreign policy." - from a footnote inserted by the volume's editors.
"There has always been, since the earliest historical times, a tendency to an ever closer and wider association between the different groups that compose the human race...The thought that guides the collective march of societies and tends to draw them closer together has always triumphed... And when we see that human civilization suddenly breaks down, after having been concentrated for some time around some pivotal country or city, we can be sure3 that it will rise again during the subsequent phase of world history, perhaps with less intensity, but more widely spread. Civilization will then cast its light across a broader surface of our earth, uniting victors and defeated... In the past, this tendency affected successive generations without them being aware of it it has acquired a regular, progressive explicit development, and it has often been consciously pursued." in the essay "On Public Opinion... and International Leadership (pg 199-200)
Several of the letters and essays and musings translated and printed into this anthology were fairly interesting, while others I found dry and, to me, personally, lacking in appeal. Whether the ensuing 200 years of European history and my sense of it has dulled the edge of those writings, I do not know, but there were enough 'gems' in the text for me to appreciate the overall sense of what Mazzini had been attempting to achieve.
From his call for the democratization and unification of the peninsula under a national republic, to his condemnation of monarchical and hereditary regimes, this small volume's contents reinforce the idea that one should 'always continue to learn."
A couple of interesting quotes:
"...Mazzini's pluralistic and bottom-up view of international relations...that domestic and transnational societal actors have the ability to actively shape foreign policy." - from a footnote inserted by the volume's editors.
"There has always been, since the earliest historical times, a tendency to an ever closer and wider association between the different groups that compose the human race...The thought that guides the collective march of societies and tends to draw them closer together has always triumphed... And when we see that human civilization suddenly breaks down, after having been concentrated for some time around some pivotal country or city, we can be sure3 that it will rise again during the subsequent phase of world history, perhaps with less intensity, but more widely spread. Civilization will then cast its light across a broader surface of our earth, uniting victors and defeated... In the past, this tendency affected successive generations without them being aware of it it has acquired a regular, progressive explicit development, and it has often been consciously pursued." in the essay "On Public Opinion... and International Leadership (pg 199-200)
Displaying 1 of 1 review