The Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu: Humanitarian Despotism and the Conditions of Modern Tyranny

(Paperback)

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"The Dialogue in Hell between Montesquieu and Machiavelli" is the source of the world's most infamous literary forgery, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". John Waggoner's translation of, and commentary on, Maurice Joly's dialogue seeks not only to update the sordid legacy of the Protocols but to redeem Joly's original work for serious study in its own right, rather than through the lens of anti-semitism. Waggoner's work rescues Joly from the shadow of the Protocols. It vindicates a man who was neither an anti-semite nor a supporter of the kind of tyrannical politics the Protocols subsequently served and displays Joly, once much maligned and too long ignored, as one of the 19th century's foremost theoriticians of despotism.

Reviews

Joly's Dialogue addresses perennial questions that are now more urgent than ever: What are the prospects for freedom Is the liberal system universally applicable Is despotism a benighted remnant of the past or can it develop into new forms After a century and a half, Joly's thought repressed, ignored, hijacked, and misunderstood comes into light [and] his voice is still quite fresh. The bitter irony of the despotic abuse to which this book was put demands redress by renewed access to Joly's liberal, anti-despotic thought. John Waggoner has made this possible for English-speaking readers. -- Richard F. Hassing
A fair and timely reassessment of one of the earliest and most acute analysts of modern despotism. -- Pierre Manent, Centre de Recherches Politiques Raymond Aron (EHESS, Paris)
Joly's is a classic diagnosis of distinctively modern despotism, and Waggoner adds to Joly's text an illuminating commentary. This book has lessons for all who love free government. -- Robert K. Faulkner
In addition to teaching us about the permanence of the possibility of tyranny, and its perverse new forms in modernity, Joly compels us to wonder whether our liberalism or Machiavelli's is truer. * Azure *
Joly's work is a briliant account of modern depotism, and of the vulnerability of republicanism to a Machiavellianism aware of the manipulability of popular mechanisms. Joly's updating of Machiavellianism deserves to be read as a prophetic and unwittingly influential document. Having detailed the despotism of its own century and inadvertently contributed to that of the century to come, perhaps in can help our century to learn to formulate an adequate response to the all-too enduring voice of tyranny. * The Review of Politics *
John Waggoner has done all of us a tremendous service by making available in English the text of Maurice Joly's Dialogue, as well as a penetrating analysis of this neglected work. His insight allows us to better understand the origins of both totalitarianism and anti-Semitism in the twentieth century. -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man

Author Bio

John S. Waggoner has taught at the Sorbonne, the American University of Paris, and the American University of Cairo.