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

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
, and
Florentine Histories
—and demonstrates that a radically democratic populism seeded the Florentine’s scandalous writings. John McCormick challenges the misguided understandings of Machiavelli set forth by prominent thinkers, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau and representatives of the Straussian and Cambridge schools, and he emphasizes the fundamental, often unacknowledged elements of a vibrant Machiavellian politics. Advancing fresh readings of Machiavelli’s work, this book presents a new outlook on how politics should be conceptualized and practiced.