by Garry Wills
Garry Wills shifts from American political history to explore Renaissance Venice when the island city commanded global trade routes. He argues Venice was never the ideal state its champions claimed, despite their belief in Venetian exceptionalism modeled on classical Athens. The republic accumulated massive wealth through guild monopolies and deployed powerful navies across the Mediterranean. Wills examines the great families, elder statesmen, and institutions that enabled this expansion, while also spotlighting women and ordinary workers typically ignored in period histories. He analyzes the religious convictions and practical wisdom that drove Venetian ambitions for wealth and influence. The book tours Venice's surviving architectural and artistic achievements, explaining how they reflected the city's values. Wills concludes Venice was not perfect, just superior to its contemporaries and better equipped to maintain its ideals across centuries. His portrait reveals how those ideals shaped one of history's most distinctive cities.
Genres: history, non-fiction, art-history, academic
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-non-fiction
Setting: Venice, Mediterranean, Athens
Period: Renaissance
Paperback · Diane Pub Co