The Republic or April 1865

The Republic

Author: Plato

Without doubt the greatest and most provocative work of political philosophy ever produced in the West, The Republic is here presented in the stately and melodious Jowett translation-a perfect mirror of the beauty of Plato's style.

Beginning as an inquiry into justice as it operates in individuals, The Republic soon becomes an inquiry into the problems of constructing the perfect state. Are the masses really qualified to choose virtuous leaders? Should the rulers of a state receive a special education to prepare them to exercise power virtuously? What should such an education consist of? Should artists who do not use their gifts in a morally responsible way still be allowed a place in society? The Republic's answers to these and related questions make up a utopian (or, perhaps, dystopian) program that challenges many of the modern world's most dearly held assumptions-and leads us to reexamine and better understand those assumptions.

Author Biography:
Plato (c. 427-347 B.C.) was born into a wealthy and prominent family, and grew up during the conflict between Athens and the Peloponnesian states. The execution of his mentor, Socrates, in 399 B.C. on charges of irreligion and corrupting the young, necessitated Plato's leaving Athens. He traveled to Egypt as well as to southern Italy, where he became conversant with Pythagorean philosophy. Plato returned to Athens c. 387 B.C. and founded the Academy, an early forerunner of the modern university. Aristotle was among his students.

What People Are Saying

John Cooper
"Its increased accessibility promises to make it the number-one choice for undergraduate courses."
—Princeton University

Lloyd P. Gerson
"Loving attention to detail and deep familiarity with Plato's thought are evident on every page."
—University of Toronto

Read also

April 1865: The Month That Saved America

Author: Jay Winik

It was a month that could have unraveled the nation. Instead, it saved it. In April 1865, Jay Winik masterfully breathes new life into the end of a war and the events we only thought we knew. This gripping, panoramic narrative takes readers on a breathless ride through these tumultuous 30 days, showing that the nation's future rested on a few crucial decisions and twists of fate.

Here is Richmond's dramatic fall, Lee's harrowing retreat, and the intense debate in Confederate circles over unleashing guerilla warfare. Here, too, is the rebel surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln's assassination five days later, and the ensuing fears of chaos and a coup, the shaky transfer of presidential power, and, finally, the start of national reconciliation. Outsized characters stalk through sweeping events in Winik's brilliant narrative, transforming a seeming epilogue to a great war into a central—and saving—moment in American history, firmly placing April 1865 in the same pantheon as 1492 and 176.

About the Author:
Jay Winik has had a distinguished government career and is now a senior scholar at the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. His first boo, On the Brink: The Dramatic, Behind-the-Scenes Saga of the Regan Era and the Men and Women Who Won the Cold War, won wide critical acclaim. He lives in Chevy Chase, MD.

Weekly Standard - Terry Eastland

Winik's command of the war makes the book compelling: an engrossing narrative history, a valuable refresher on how the war ended.

San Francisco Chronicle

[A] comprehensive, essential volume ..[the] interviews are like keys to the many rooms of [Ginsberg's] expansive consciousness.

Baltimore Sun

Winik more than meets the tests of vigorous narrative and fresh analysis ... It is easy today to assume that the outcome of the Civil War was inevitable. But as Winik makes clear, no such certitude existed at the beginning of the fateful month of April 1865.

Publishers Weekly

Though the primary focus of this book is the last month of the Civil War, it opens in the 18th century with a view of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Winik (whose previous book, On the Brink, was an account of the Reagan administration and the end of the Cold War) offers not just a study of four weeks of war, but a panoramic assessment of America and its contradictions. The opening Jeffersonian question is: does the good of the country take precedence over that of the individual states? The question of civil union or civil war is the central question of this new work. Winik goes on to describe how a series of events that occurred during a matter of weeks in April 1865 (the fall of Richmond; Lee's graceful surrender to Grant at Appomattox, and Grant's equally distinguished handling of his foe; Lincoln's assassination), none of them inevitable, would solve Jefferson's riddle: while a loose federation of states entered the war, what emerged from war and Reconstruction was a much stronger nation; the Union had decisively triumphed over the wishes of individual states. Winik's sense of the dramatic and his vivid writing bring a fitting flourish to his thesis that April 1865 marked a turning point in American history: "So, after April 1865, when the blood had clotted and dried, when the cadavers had been removed and the graves filled in, what America was asking for, at war's end, was in fact something quite unique: a special exemption from the cruel edicts of history." Winik's ability to see the big picture in the close-up (and vice versa), and to compose riveting narrative, is masterful. This book is a triumph. (Apr. 4) Forecast: Popular history at its best, this book should appeal widely to readers beyond the usual Civil War crowd. Strong endorsements from a group of noted historians, including James M. McPherson and Douglas Brinkley, along with a 10-city author tour, should also help both review coverage and sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

April 1865 saw the evacuation of the Confederate capital at Richmond, the surrender of the Confederacy's two major remaining field armies, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. These events (and more) are brought to life in Winik's (public affairs, Univ. of Maryland; On the Brink) provocative narrative of the end of the Civil War. All of the major characters, from Lincoln and Ulysses Grant to Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, are here, as are numerous other figures. Sometimes the prose is a little too breezy and breathless, and there are the occasional (minor) factual slips that will cause the veteran reader of Civil War narratives to wince. Nevertheless, it is Winik's willingness to embrace contingency, to ponder alternatives, and to raise thoughtful questions about what did (and did not) happen that raise this account above the typical and increasingly tiresome renditions of the conflict's climax. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Brooks D. Simpson, Arizona State Univ., Tempe Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Originally published in 2001, Winik's history of the last days of the Civil War emphasizes the implications of one month's events for America's development<-->then and now. He discusses Lee's retreat, Southern plans for guerrilla war, Appomattox, Lincoln's assassination, Northern fears of a coup, and the beginning of national reconciliation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

What People Are Saying

James M. McPherson
Jay Winik's April 1865 captures all the drama and significance in a fast-paced narrative full of larger-than-life characters: Lincoln and Davis, Grant and Lee, Sherman and Johnston—and John Wilkes Booth. Here is a book that fully measures up to the importance of its subject.
—(James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom)

Table of Contents:

	List of Maps	IX
	Introduction	XI
	Prelude: "A Nation Delayed"	3
Part 1	March 1865
1.	The Dilemma	29
Part 2	April 1, 1865
2.	The Fall	73
3.	The Chase--and the Decision	123
4.	The Meeting	173
Part 3	April 15, 1865
5.	The Unraveling	203
6.	Will It All Come Undone?	259
7.	Surrender	301
Part 4	Late Spring, 1865
8.	Reconciliation	351
	Epilogue: To Make a Nation	365
	Notes	389
	Acknowledgments	449
	Index	453