Machiavelli in Hell by Sebastian De Grazia

Machiavelli for Moderns goes beyond the Medici and Borgias, reaches for intelligent and courageous examples in the corrupt worlds of modern government, business, the armed forces and religion, to reveal that Machiavelli's warnings are hammering on the door of the 21st century.' - Sebastian de Grazia, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of MACHIAVELLI IN HELL He has brought together what little is known of Machiavelli's life and the feats of his mind (also.'To illustrate his ideas, Machiavelli made it a practice to give two examples, one ancient and one 'fresh.' With a firm grasp on American contemporary domestic and foreign policy, Michael Ledeen has provided what readers of Machiavelli need today - modern or 'fresh' examples. Although he does not cite secondary literature, he has absorbed it and used it.

He quotes liberally in his own translation, which is far above the usual standard, so that the reader can follow attentively what the author makes of Machiavelli's words. De Grazia has the whole of Machiavelli in his mind, not just the major works, and to every disputed point of interpretation, he brings all the relevant passages, not just those which make him seem wise.

His intellectual biography of Machiavelli (which won and deserved a Pultizer prize) shines with artistry of design, beautiful writing, and the kind of originality that always comes from accuracy and thoroughness. Sebastian de Grazia has done the trick that is the dream of all of us in the profession, whether we admit it or not: he has produced a serious book for the general reader. Yet their books are as different as plot and theme. Their scholarship might be thought narrow by political scientists, derivative and submissive by political theorists but in a competition before impartial judges for who teaches the most about politics, these two would quiet such critics and easily vindicate their choice of subject and method. The wisdom resulting from their devotion reminds one of Machiavelli's recommendation that the hunter become a knower of sites by knowing one site well, for they show just how much political science can be learned from one solitary source if only it is chosen and examined well. Here are two books on Machiavelli of unusual distinction, composed by authors who have spent a good portion of their lives in loving study of a great man whom they need to understand and so do not wish to deconstruct.

Machiavelli in Hell by Sebastian De Grazia