Machiavelli's Virtue - Softcover

Mansfield, Harvey C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226503690 ISBN 13: 9780226503691

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1998

Synopsis

Uniting thirty years of authoritative scholarship by a master of textual detail, Machiavelli's 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 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. . . . The 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

About this title

From the Back Cover

Machiavelli's Virtue is a comprehensive statement on the founder of modern politics. Harvey C. Mansfield begins by analyzing Machiavelli's radical notion of virtue, which culminates in his own personal virtue. Machiavelli shows that princes need a new morality that only he has supplied. Mansfield argues that Machiavelli intended to rule the world through his thought; though a prince without a state, his subjects were the princes who would follow his writings on founding and ruling. This new "perpetual republic" is Machiavelli's own sect - and a remedy for the failures of all previous republics. 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. Following the method of Leo Strauss, he takes up Machiavelli's individual works as wholes and shows him to be the founder of modern institutions that came later, such as the impersonal state and the energetic executive. Mansfield thus makes the case that Machiavelli is alive for us and full of the wisdom we need. His thought cannot be dismissed as quaint and obsolete; it is disturbingly relevant for our delusions and our complacency.

Synopsis

Uniting 30 years of scholarship, this book is a comprehensive statement on the founder of modern politics. It reveals the role of sects in Machiavelli's politics, his advice on how to rule indirectly and the ultimately partisan character of his project.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0226503690
• ISBN 13: 9780226503691
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 388