Machiavelli's Virtue

Abstract

Uniting thirty years of authoritative scholarship by a master of textual detail, Virtue is a comprehensive statement on the founder of modern politics. Harvey Mansfield reveals the role of sects in Machiavelli's politics, his advice on how to rule indirectly, and the ultimately partisan character of his project, and shows him to be the founder of such modern and diverse institutions such as the impersonal state and the energetic executive. Accessible and elegant, this groundbreaking interpretation explains the puzzles and reveals the ambition of Machiavelli's thought.The book brings together essays that have mapped [Mansfield's] paths of reflection over the past thirty years. . . . ground, one would think, is ancient and familiar, but Mansfield manages to draw out some understandings, or recognitions, jarringly new.--Hadley Arkes, New Criterion Mansfield's book more than rewards the close reading it demands.--Colin Walters, Washington Times [A] masterly new book on the Renaissance courtier, statesman and political philosopher. . . . Mansfield seeks to rescue Machiavelli from liberalism's anodyne rehabilitation.--Roger Kimball, The Wall Street Journal

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 221 citations exist upstream.