Discourse on Voluntary Servitude

"An excellent translation: clear, crisp and accurate. The introduction is also a helpful contextualization of the text, Boétie's relation to Montaigne, and a brief discussion of the history of this important text on non-cooperation in the 20th-Century. I highly recommend it for courses in the history of political theory and of non-cooperation as a means of regime change."
     —James Tully, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria

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27073g

Étienne de La Boétie
Translated by James B. Atkinson & David Sices
Introduction and Notes by James B. Atkinson

September 2012 - 96 pp.

Grouped product items
Format ISBN Price Qty
Cloth 978-1-60384-840-4
$26.00
Paper 978-1-60384-839-8
$9.00
Instructor Examination (Review) Copy 978-1-60384-839-8
$2.00

eBook available for $7.95. Click HERE for more information.

"An excellent translation: clear, crisp and accurate. The introduction is also a helpful contextualization of the text, Boétie's relation to Montaigne, and a brief discussion of the history of this important text on non-cooperation in the 20th-Century. I highly recommend it for courses in the history of political theory and of non-cooperation as a means of regime change."
     —James Tully, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria

 

 "A powerful rendition of La Boétie's "soldierly prose" (as Montaigne would have it). . . . With this unassuming book, the authors have not only offered a solid introduction to Étienne de La Boétie and his legacy, but also passed on to us a "living document" (Harry Kurz) which may yet find resonance in our own troubled times."
     —Jeremie Korta, Harvard University, in Sixteenth Century Journal

 

 "An elegant English version of La Boétie's Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, which is both a key to understanding much of Montaigne and a major piece of early modern political thought."
     —Timothy Hampton, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley

 

 "The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude merits a more prominent place in scholarly accounts of the development of political philosophy, and in intellectual-historical accounts of the genealogy of sovereignty through the medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment periods. The scholars responsible for this edition have done a service to anyone interested in these vital topics. Atkinson’s Introduction brings La Boétie out of the shadow of Montaigne."
     —Timothy A. Turner, Department of English, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (adapted from Comitatus)

 

 "The translation offers a generous selection of notes, indicating many of the text's classical sources and identifying sometimes-obscure classical personages. Should be of value not only to English-speaking scholars of political theory, but also as a text to be assigned in classes on early modern political thought."
     —David Lewis Schaefer, College of the Holy Cross (adapted from Renaissance Quarterly)

 

 "Hackett, which has admirably supplied undergraduates and non-specialists with easily obtainable translations of foreign classics for a generation, has once again provided a reliable edition. The translation itself employs idiomatic contemporary English rather than the more stilted language of previous versions. The translators also adroitly incorporate scholarly details in their version. The notes and introduction are virtually always current, concise, and accurate."
     —Myron McShane, New York University, in Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme


"If La Boétie's thesis does not resonate with today's undergraduates, then we should all truly begin to despair. Highly recommended."
     —Michael Wolfe, St. John's University (from the Sixteenth Century Journal review of Atkinson and Sices's Montaigne: Selected Essays, with La Boétie’s 'Discourse on Voluntary Servitude')

 

About the Author:

James B. Atkinson is an independent scholar. David Sices is Professor Emeritus of French and Italian, Dartmouth College. Their edited translations Montaigne: Selected Essays, and The Comedies of Machiavelli are published by Hackett.