For today's readers, the great Italian philosopher of history Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) can be startlingly relevant to the social and educational divisiveness we confront at century's end: here Giuseppe Mazzotta, one of the leading Italianists in the United States, shows how much Vico, properly read, can bring to an understanding of contemporar "Mazzotta has presented us with a fascinating portrait of a complex philosopher. . . . Mazzotta's sure understanding of the texts at issue, coupled with a forceful prose style, makes this book required reading for anyone trying to understand Vico's encyclopedic thought."---James B. South, International Philosophical Quarterly