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The Social Implications Of Dante’S Commedia, Judson I. Mather

Masters Theses

Introduction

The focus of this study has derived, in part, from the experience of teaching a course in "The History of Social Thought" to undergraduate sociology majors. The more comprehensive texts in the field accord Dante some notice. But the treatment he receives as a social thinker is uniformly patronizing. One of the most substantial and adequate of these texts, for example -- the three-volume study by Howard Becker and Harry Elmer Barnes-- has this to say:

The key to Dante's character and to his social theory as well is to be found in the fact that "world peace was …