Machiavelli's Virtue

Machiavelli's Virtue by Mansfield, Harvey C.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780226503684.

Uniting thirty years of authoritative scholarship by a master of textual detail, Machiavellis Virtue is a comprehensive statement on the founder of modern politics. Harvey Mansfield reveals the role of sects in Machiavellis 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 Machiavellis thought. "The book brings together essays that have mapped [Mansfields] 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 "Mansfields 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 liberalisms anodyne rehabilitation."—Roger Kimball, The Wall Street Journal