Reading Machiavelli: Scandalous Books, Suspect Engagements, and the Virtue of Populist Politics

A new reading of Machiavelli’s major works that demonstrates how he has been previously misread

To what extent was Niccolò Machiavelli a “Machiavellian”? Was he an amoral adviser of tyranny or a stalwart partisan of liberty? A neutral technician of power politics or a devout Italian patriot? A reviver of pagan virtue or initiator of modern nihilism? Reading Machiavelli answers these questions through original interpretations of Machiavelli’s three major political works—The Prince, Discourses...