Machiavelli's Virtue

By Harvey C. Mansfield

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

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Release date: Feb 25, 1998
• ISBN: 9780226503721

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Reviews for Machiavelli's Virtue

[baswood · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mansfield offers an interpretation of Machiavelli's political science in a book aimed at the scholar or student rather than the general reader. Some knowledge of Machiavelli's works is required and familiarity with [The Prince] and [Discourses on Livy] is a distinct advantage. Much has been written about Machiavelli's use of the word virtue and Mansfield launches his book with a chapter on that very subject. Machiavelli seems to be saying that virtue is the ability to get things done, but it is used in so many contexts that is takes on other shades of meaning. Mansfield point out that Machiavelli believed that morality should be interpreted "according to the times" and so if the times are corrupt then one is compelled to live and behave corruptly and therefore morally excused from doing so. Therefore to be successful in a corrupt world calls for action that today we would not associate with being virtuous, but Machiavelli uses the word in the context of someone being successful in that corrupt world. There is much to be gained from a careful reading of this chapter as Mansfield then embarks on his interpretations of Machiavelli's political writing in the chapters that follow.A key theme of this study is an examination of Machiavelli's place in the world of Political Science. This starts with a comparison with the principles of politics as set out by Edmund Burke in his "The Enlightenment and the Modern World" A chapter that Mansfield had written for another publication and this trend continues with other chapters and so there is a feeling of a series of essays rather than a cogent study. Much of this stuff has appeared in the [American Political Science Review], however Mansfield's interpretations and thoughts are rarely at odds with each other and so although there is some repetition, it all reads fairly fluently.The book amounts to a collection of articles and essays on Machiavelli's Political thoughts and writings and while much here is of value it is left to the reader to pick through the portions of the book that will be of interest. I read it from cover to cover and enjoyed much of it, especially issues surrounding the influences that Machiavelli has on current political thought, but at times felt I was in a rarefied atmosphere of Political Science and felt my attention wandering. For me a 3.5 star read.