"Here is a study by a recognized master in the field of intellectual history of the challenge put by Machiavelli to the idea that there is a universal moral law governing human behavior. Should the political leader act according to the maxim of "my country right or wrong," or should elites follow the principle of "let justice be done"?

Friedrich Meinecke, an acknowledged founder of cultural history as a field, follows the discussion of this theme from Machiavelli through such major figures as Richelieu, Frederick the Great, and Hegel, and presents conclusions of enduring significance. In the course of his analysis, he provides some fundamentals for both causal and value theory in politics.".

"The lengthy introduction by the eminent sociologist Werner Stark provides a framework for understanding not just the importance of a singular thinker, but also the entire fabric of German history from Bismarck, the Kaiser, the Weimar Republic, and Nazism, to the post-World War II effort at the cultural, no less than material reconstruction of a democratic Germany."--BOOK JACKET.