To what extent was Machiavelli a 鈥淢achiavellian鈥�? 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 Niccol貌 Machiavelli鈥檚 three major political works鈥�The Prince, Discourses, and Florentine Histories鈥攁nd demonstrates that a radically democratic populism seeded the Florentine鈥檚 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.
McCormick emphasizes the fundamental, often unacknowledged elements of a vibrant Machiavellian politics: the utility of vigorous class conflict between elites and common citizens for virtuous democratic republics, the necessity of political and economic equality for genuine civic liberty, and the indispensability of religious tropes for the exercise of effective popular judgment. Interrogating the established reception of Machiavelli鈥檚 work by such readers as Rousseau, Leo Strauss, Quentin Skinner, and J.G.A. Pocock, McCormick exposes what was effectively an elite conspiracy to suppress the Florentine鈥檚 contentious, egalitarian politics. In recovering the too-long-concealed quality of Machiavelli鈥檚 populism, this book acts as a Machiavellian critique of Machiavelli scholarship.
Advancing fresh renderings of works by Machiavelli while demonstrating how they have been misread previously, Reading Machiavelli presents a new outlook for how politics should be conceptualized and practiced.
Awards and Recognition
- A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
John P. McCormick is professor of political science at the University of Chicago. His books include Weimar Thought (91桃色) and Machiavellian Democracy.
"This analysis should be essential to any comprehensive treatment of the Florentine鈥檚 thought."鈥擱. Heineman, Choice
"With a level of ingenuity and determination equal to that of his Straussian opponents, John McCormick finds a radical populist soul in the Machiavellian corpus. He distances his reading, not just from the conservative, Straussian construal, but also from the Cambridge interpretation that makes the Florentine a hero for progressive neo-republicans. This is political theory by other, historical means. But both the history and the theory are worthy of close attention and they will certainly command it.鈥濃�擯hilip Pettit, author of Just Freedom
鈥淛ohn McCormick is a brilliant reader of Machiavelli鈥檚 rhetorical twists and turns, and skewering of conventional pieties. In Reading Machiavelli, McCormick defends his provocative interpretation of Machiavelli as a democratic theorist, while dismantling competing interpretations by Leo Strauss, J.G.A. Pocock, Quentin Skinner, and others. This book will interest not only historians of political thought and early modernists of all stripes, but also contemporary political theorists.鈥濃�擵ictoria Kahn, University of California, Berkeley
鈥淚n the last decade, perhaps no scholar has done more to transform Machiavelli鈥檚 image than John McCormick. In his new book, McCormick exposes the prejudices that prevented Straussians and neo-republicans from acknowledging Machiavelli鈥檚 commitment to popular empowerment and elaborates a new grand narrative, in which Machiavelli (and neither Rousseau nor Spinoza) stands as the major early-modern source of contemporary democracy. Combining sharp close readings with an exceptional sensitivity to long-range historical trends, Reading Machiavelli offers a rare example of what intellectual history and political theory can be when practiced at the highest level."鈥擥abriele Pedull脿, author of Machiavelli in Tumult
鈥淭his provocative, effective, and subtly argued book demonstrates Machiavelli鈥檚 consistent advocacy of a new form of muscular populist politics in three of his major works. It also shows in detail how and why major interpretive schools of Machiavelli鈥檚 political thought have either missed or deliberately obscured the radical extent of this hard-edged populism. Reading Machiavelli will generate substantive, constructive debate.鈥濃�擬ark Jurdjevic, York University, Glendon
鈥淒istinct from other approaches to Machiavelli, this impressive book places class and class conflict at the fore. Given the political moment and the continued discussion of inequality and demagoguery, Reading Machiavelli is timely and important. It will surely have a major impact in political theory and political science more broadly, as well as in intellectual history, political philosophy, and the study of early modern Europe.鈥濃�擠aniel Kapust, University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison
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