The format of this book, with its important and very current theme, is that of an extended (and much interrupted) series of seminars between an old don and a young prince. The catalyst for this particular debate is a comparison between the dialogue of a prince and a professor in the fifteenth century and the one in some current time.

Between 1468 and 1471, Sir John Fortescue, appointed Lord Chancellor by the Lancastrian government in exile, instructed the young Prince of Wales, ...