First published in Italian in 2008 and appearing here in English for the first time, Janus's Gaze is the culmination of Carlo Galli's ongoing critique of the work of Carl Schmitt. Galli argues that Schmitt's main accomplishment, as well as the thread that unifies his oeuvre, is his construction of a genealogy of the modern that explains how modernity's compulsory drive to achieve order is both necessary and impossible. Galli addresses five key problems in Schmitt's thought: his relation to the state, the significance of his concept of political theology, his readings of Machiavelli and Spinoza, his relation to Leo Strauss, and his relevance for contemporary political theory. Galli emphasizes the importance of passing through Schmitt's thought--and, more important, beyond Schmitt's thought--if we are to achieve insight into the problems of the global age. Adam Sitze provides an illuminating introduction to Schmitt and Galli's reading of him.


Carlo Galli is Professor of History of Political Theory at the University of Bologna and the author of many books, including Political Spaces and Global War. Adam Sitze is Associate Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College and the coeditor of Biopolitics: A Reader, also published by Duke University Press. Amanda Minervini is Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian at Colorado College and translator of Nymphs by Giorgio Agamben.