Tag: Machiavelli

Books

Necessity in the Beginning of Cities

– "Necessity in the Beginning of Cities," The Political Calculus: Essays in Machiavelli's Philosophy,  A. Parel, ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972, pp. 101-126.

Review of The Machiavellian Moment

– Review of The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, by J. G. A. Pocock, American Political Science Review, vol. 71 (1977): 1151-52.

The Ambivalence of Executive Power

– "The Ambivalence of Executive Power," The Presidency in the Constitutional Order,  J. Bessette and J. Tulis, eds.,  Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1981, pp. 314-334.

Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue

– Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue: Classical Tradition and Humanist Innovation, by D. Marsh, Review of Metaphysics, vol. 34 (June 1981): 794-95.

Machiavelli’s The Prince

– A new translation with introduction, University of Chicago Press, 1985; second edition, with corrections and a glossary, 1998.

How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?

– "How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?," review of Citizen Machiavelli, by Mark Hulliung, Review of Politics, vol. 47 (1985): 298-300.

Machiavelli and the Modern Executive

– "Machiavelli and the Modern Executive," Understanding the Political Spirit, Catherine H. Zuckert, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, pp. 88-110.

Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power

– The Free Press, 1989; paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. The Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (April 1, 1993)
Excerpt: To understand the modern doctrine of executive power, we need to know, at least approximately, what executive power is. It might at first seem best to go directly to the thing and… More

Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince

– Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince: Anti-Machiavellianism or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe, by Robert Bireley, American Historical Review, vol. 97 (February 1992): 182.

Review of Machiavelli in Hell

– Review of Machiavelli in Hell, by Sebastian de Grazia, and The Machiavellian Cosmos, by Anthony J. Parel, American Political Science Review, vol. 87 (1993): 764-65.
Excerpt: 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… More

The Unfinished Revolution

– "The Unfinished Revolution," Three Beginnings: Revolution, Rights, and the Liberal State,  Stephen F. Englehart and John Allphin Moore, Jr., eds.,  New York: Peter Lang, 1994, pp. 9-30.  Reprinted in The Legacy of the French Revolution, Ralph C. Hancock and L. Gary Lambert, eds., Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. pp. 19-41.

Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress

– "Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress," History and the Idea of Progress, Arthur Melzer, jerry Weinberger, and Richard Zinman, eds., Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Ancient or Modern?

– "Ancient or Modern?" review of Machiavelli's Three Romes, by Vickie B. Sullivan, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April 1997.

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 25, 1998)
Excerpt: Machiavelli’s political science has not received the attention it deserves. All commentators are attracted, with a force they often seem not to understand, by the question of… More

Review of Machiavelli

– Review of Machiavelli, by Maurizio Viroli, American Political Science Review, vol. 93 (1999): 964-65.

Consulting Old Nick

– "Consulting Old Nick," review of Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, by Michael Ledeen, and The New Prince, by Dick Morris, Wall Street Journal, 10 June 1999, A24.

The Cuckold in Machiavelli’s Mandragola

– "The Cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli; Essays on the Literary Works, Vickie B. Sullivan, ed., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 1-29.

Educating the Prince Eds. Blitz/Kristol

Educating the Prince: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Mark Blitz and William Kristol, eds., Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
In this festschrift for Harvey Mansfield, twenty-one former students, themselves distinguished scholars and writers, reflect on the whole gambit of Mansfieldian themes, from Machiavelli… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism

“Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism,” Renaissance Civic Humanism, James Hankins, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 223-246. Read online: Google Books |… More

A Student’s Guide to Political Philosophy

– Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2001.
Excerpt: Political Philosophy is found in great books—those by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau and others of the highest rank—and in books by professors. You should spend much more… More

Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists

– "Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2001.
Excerpt: These are the words of Edmund Burke, referring to a corps of irregulars used to enforce the tyranny of the French Revolution. I hope I will not be drafted into the “blame… More

Rational Control

– “Rational Control,” The New Criterion, September 2006, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 39-44.
Excerpt: In the brand new building where I work, the lights go on and off, the shades go up and down, and the toilets flush, automatically, without your having to turn a switch or push a… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Arts of Rule Eds. Krause/McGrail

The Arts of Rule: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Sharon R. Krause and Mary Ann McGrail, eds., Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.
Excerpt: This is a book about the arts of rule. It has been created for the purpose of honoring Harvey C. Mansfield, who has taught so many of us so much about these arts. Above all, he has… More

Taming the Prince

– "Taming the Prince," lecture delivered to the John Marshall International Center for the Study of Statesmanship, 16 October 2009.

Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?

– "Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?", Defining Ideas, 30 August 2012.
Excerpt: Here are some thoughts and some readings for freshmen (or first-years) excited about our election and heading for college. They also apply to the rest of us long-time voters who… More

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– Robert D. Kaplan, “Machiavelli’s Virtue,” Stratfor Global Intelligence, March 20, 2013.
Excerpt: Self-interest informs compromise with other human beings, and thus a state governed by self-interest is likely to compromise with other states: whereas a person or state governed… More

Birth of the Modern

– "Birth of the Modern," Wall Street Journal, 23 June 2013.
Excerpt: For this grand role, the mind of Machiavelli must have been capable of acting on its own, informed but not dictated by the events of the time. Machiavelli had much to say on this… More

Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?

– Harvey C. Mansfield "Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?" Panel hosted by Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, September 19, 2013.
Panel 1 (of 4) from a conference on the 500th anniversary of the writing of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, held on Thursday, September 19, 2013 and hosted by the Program on… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– “Machiavelli’s Enterprise,” The New Criterion (October 2013).
Excerpt: To create the modern world Machiavelli initiated a two-fold transformation of politics and philosophy that would bring them together: politics with the elevation of philosophy and… More

Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox

– CBC Radio Ideas with Paul Kennedy. "Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox" Nov 5, 2013. CBC Radio 1.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC “Ideas” radio program on Machiavelli featuring Harvey C. Mansfield, Clifford Orwin, Michelle Clarke, and Erica Brenner. Comedian Rick… More

Tocqueville’s Machiavellianism

– Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthop, “Tocqueville's Machiavellianism,” Perspectives on Political Science 43, no. 2 (Apr.–June 2014): 87–92.  
Abstract: Tocqueville’s sole reference to Machiavelli in Democracy in America is a nicely located misquotation. This article makes much of it, more than one would likely think… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– "Machiavelli's Enterprise," Machiavelli's Legacy, Timothy Fuller ed., University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2015.
Mansfield has an essay in the volume Machiavelli’s Legacy: The Prince after Five Hundred Years, just out from the University of Pennsylvania Press. From the publisher: Niccolo… More

Essays

Necessity in the Beginning of Cities

– "Necessity in the Beginning of Cities," The Political Calculus: Essays in Machiavelli's Philosophy,  A. Parel, ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972, pp. 101-126.

Review of The Machiavellian Moment

– Review of The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, by J. G. A. Pocock, American Political Science Review, vol. 71 (1977): 1151-52.

The Ambivalence of Executive Power

– "The Ambivalence of Executive Power," The Presidency in the Constitutional Order,  J. Bessette and J. Tulis, eds.,  Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1981, pp. 314-334.

Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue

– Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue: Classical Tradition and Humanist Innovation, by D. Marsh, Review of Metaphysics, vol. 34 (June 1981): 794-95.

Machiavelli’s The Prince

– A new translation with introduction, University of Chicago Press, 1985; second edition, with corrections and a glossary, 1998.

How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?

– "How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?," review of Citizen Machiavelli, by Mark Hulliung, Review of Politics, vol. 47 (1985): 298-300.

Machiavelli and the Modern Executive

– "Machiavelli and the Modern Executive," Understanding the Political Spirit, Catherine H. Zuckert, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, pp. 88-110.

Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power

– The Free Press, 1989; paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. The Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (April 1, 1993)
Excerpt: To understand the modern doctrine of executive power, we need to know, at least approximately, what executive power is. It might at first seem best to go directly to the thing and… More

Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince

– Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince: Anti-Machiavellianism or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe, by Robert Bireley, American Historical Review, vol. 97 (February 1992): 182.

Review of Machiavelli in Hell

– Review of Machiavelli in Hell, by Sebastian de Grazia, and The Machiavellian Cosmos, by Anthony J. Parel, American Political Science Review, vol. 87 (1993): 764-65.
Excerpt: 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… More

The Unfinished Revolution

– "The Unfinished Revolution," Three Beginnings: Revolution, Rights, and the Liberal State,  Stephen F. Englehart and John Allphin Moore, Jr., eds.,  New York: Peter Lang, 1994, pp. 9-30.  Reprinted in The Legacy of the French Revolution, Ralph C. Hancock and L. Gary Lambert, eds., Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. pp. 19-41.

Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress

– "Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress," History and the Idea of Progress, Arthur Melzer, jerry Weinberger, and Richard Zinman, eds., Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Ancient or Modern?

– "Ancient or Modern?" review of Machiavelli's Three Romes, by Vickie B. Sullivan, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April 1997.

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 25, 1998)
Excerpt: Machiavelli’s political science has not received the attention it deserves. All commentators are attracted, with a force they often seem not to understand, by the question of… More

Review of Machiavelli

– Review of Machiavelli, by Maurizio Viroli, American Political Science Review, vol. 93 (1999): 964-65.

Consulting Old Nick

– "Consulting Old Nick," review of Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, by Michael Ledeen, and The New Prince, by Dick Morris, Wall Street Journal, 10 June 1999, A24.

The Cuckold in Machiavelli’s Mandragola

– "The Cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli; Essays on the Literary Works, Vickie B. Sullivan, ed., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 1-29.

Educating the Prince Eds. Blitz/Kristol

Educating the Prince: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Mark Blitz and William Kristol, eds., Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
In this festschrift for Harvey Mansfield, twenty-one former students, themselves distinguished scholars and writers, reflect on the whole gambit of Mansfieldian themes, from Machiavelli… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism

“Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism,” Renaissance Civic Humanism, James Hankins, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 223-246. Read online: Google Books |… More

A Student’s Guide to Political Philosophy

– Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2001.
Excerpt: Political Philosophy is found in great books—those by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau and others of the highest rank—and in books by professors. You should spend much more… More

Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists

– "Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2001.
Excerpt: These are the words of Edmund Burke, referring to a corps of irregulars used to enforce the tyranny of the French Revolution. I hope I will not be drafted into the “blame… More

Rational Control

– “Rational Control,” The New Criterion, September 2006, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 39-44.
Excerpt: In the brand new building where I work, the lights go on and off, the shades go up and down, and the toilets flush, automatically, without your having to turn a switch or push a… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Arts of Rule Eds. Krause/McGrail

The Arts of Rule: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Sharon R. Krause and Mary Ann McGrail, eds., Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.
Excerpt: This is a book about the arts of rule. It has been created for the purpose of honoring Harvey C. Mansfield, who has taught so many of us so much about these arts. Above all, he has… More

Taming the Prince

– "Taming the Prince," lecture delivered to the John Marshall International Center for the Study of Statesmanship, 16 October 2009.

Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?

– "Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?", Defining Ideas, 30 August 2012.
Excerpt: Here are some thoughts and some readings for freshmen (or first-years) excited about our election and heading for college. They also apply to the rest of us long-time voters who… More

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– Robert D. Kaplan, “Machiavelli’s Virtue,” Stratfor Global Intelligence, March 20, 2013.
Excerpt: Self-interest informs compromise with other human beings, and thus a state governed by self-interest is likely to compromise with other states: whereas a person or state governed… More

Birth of the Modern

– "Birth of the Modern," Wall Street Journal, 23 June 2013.
Excerpt: For this grand role, the mind of Machiavelli must have been capable of acting on its own, informed but not dictated by the events of the time. Machiavelli had much to say on this… More

Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?

– Harvey C. Mansfield "Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?" Panel hosted by Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, September 19, 2013.
Panel 1 (of 4) from a conference on the 500th anniversary of the writing of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, held on Thursday, September 19, 2013 and hosted by the Program on… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– “Machiavelli’s Enterprise,” The New Criterion (October 2013).
Excerpt: To create the modern world Machiavelli initiated a two-fold transformation of politics and philosophy that would bring them together: politics with the elevation of philosophy and… More

Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox

– CBC Radio Ideas with Paul Kennedy. "Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox" Nov 5, 2013. CBC Radio 1.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC “Ideas” radio program on Machiavelli featuring Harvey C. Mansfield, Clifford Orwin, Michelle Clarke, and Erica Brenner. Comedian Rick… More

Tocqueville’s Machiavellianism

– Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthop, “Tocqueville's Machiavellianism,” Perspectives on Political Science 43, no. 2 (Apr.–June 2014): 87–92.  
Abstract: Tocqueville’s sole reference to Machiavelli in Democracy in America is a nicely located misquotation. This article makes much of it, more than one would likely think… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– "Machiavelli's Enterprise," Machiavelli's Legacy, Timothy Fuller ed., University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2015.
Mansfield has an essay in the volume Machiavelli’s Legacy: The Prince after Five Hundred Years, just out from the University of Pennsylvania Press. From the publisher: Niccolo… More

Commentary

Necessity in the Beginning of Cities

– "Necessity in the Beginning of Cities," The Political Calculus: Essays in Machiavelli's Philosophy,  A. Parel, ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972, pp. 101-126.

Review of The Machiavellian Moment

– Review of The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, by J. G. A. Pocock, American Political Science Review, vol. 71 (1977): 1151-52.

The Ambivalence of Executive Power

– "The Ambivalence of Executive Power," The Presidency in the Constitutional Order,  J. Bessette and J. Tulis, eds.,  Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1981, pp. 314-334.

Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue

– Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue: Classical Tradition and Humanist Innovation, by D. Marsh, Review of Metaphysics, vol. 34 (June 1981): 794-95.

Machiavelli’s The Prince

– A new translation with introduction, University of Chicago Press, 1985; second edition, with corrections and a glossary, 1998.

How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?

– "How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?," review of Citizen Machiavelli, by Mark Hulliung, Review of Politics, vol. 47 (1985): 298-300.

Machiavelli and the Modern Executive

– "Machiavelli and the Modern Executive," Understanding the Political Spirit, Catherine H. Zuckert, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, pp. 88-110.

Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power

– The Free Press, 1989; paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. The Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (April 1, 1993)
Excerpt: To understand the modern doctrine of executive power, we need to know, at least approximately, what executive power is. It might at first seem best to go directly to the thing and… More

Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince

– Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince: Anti-Machiavellianism or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe, by Robert Bireley, American Historical Review, vol. 97 (February 1992): 182.

Review of Machiavelli in Hell

– Review of Machiavelli in Hell, by Sebastian de Grazia, and The Machiavellian Cosmos, by Anthony J. Parel, American Political Science Review, vol. 87 (1993): 764-65.
Excerpt: 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… More

The Unfinished Revolution

– "The Unfinished Revolution," Three Beginnings: Revolution, Rights, and the Liberal State,  Stephen F. Englehart and John Allphin Moore, Jr., eds.,  New York: Peter Lang, 1994, pp. 9-30.  Reprinted in The Legacy of the French Revolution, Ralph C. Hancock and L. Gary Lambert, eds., Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. pp. 19-41.

Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress

– "Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress," History and the Idea of Progress, Arthur Melzer, jerry Weinberger, and Richard Zinman, eds., Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Ancient or Modern?

– "Ancient or Modern?" review of Machiavelli's Three Romes, by Vickie B. Sullivan, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April 1997.

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 25, 1998)
Excerpt: Machiavelli’s political science has not received the attention it deserves. All commentators are attracted, with a force they often seem not to understand, by the question of… More

Review of Machiavelli

– Review of Machiavelli, by Maurizio Viroli, American Political Science Review, vol. 93 (1999): 964-65.

Consulting Old Nick

– "Consulting Old Nick," review of Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, by Michael Ledeen, and The New Prince, by Dick Morris, Wall Street Journal, 10 June 1999, A24.

The Cuckold in Machiavelli’s Mandragola

– "The Cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli; Essays on the Literary Works, Vickie B. Sullivan, ed., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 1-29.

Educating the Prince Eds. Blitz/Kristol

Educating the Prince: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Mark Blitz and William Kristol, eds., Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
In this festschrift for Harvey Mansfield, twenty-one former students, themselves distinguished scholars and writers, reflect on the whole gambit of Mansfieldian themes, from Machiavelli… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism

“Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism,” Renaissance Civic Humanism, James Hankins, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 223-246. Read online: Google Books |… More

A Student’s Guide to Political Philosophy

– Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2001.
Excerpt: Political Philosophy is found in great books—those by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau and others of the highest rank—and in books by professors. You should spend much more… More

Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists

– "Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2001.
Excerpt: These are the words of Edmund Burke, referring to a corps of irregulars used to enforce the tyranny of the French Revolution. I hope I will not be drafted into the “blame… More

Rational Control

– “Rational Control,” The New Criterion, September 2006, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 39-44.
Excerpt: In the brand new building where I work, the lights go on and off, the shades go up and down, and the toilets flush, automatically, without your having to turn a switch or push a… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Arts of Rule Eds. Krause/McGrail

The Arts of Rule: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Sharon R. Krause and Mary Ann McGrail, eds., Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.
Excerpt: This is a book about the arts of rule. It has been created for the purpose of honoring Harvey C. Mansfield, who has taught so many of us so much about these arts. Above all, he has… More

Taming the Prince

– "Taming the Prince," lecture delivered to the John Marshall International Center for the Study of Statesmanship, 16 October 2009.

Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?

– "Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?", Defining Ideas, 30 August 2012.
Excerpt: Here are some thoughts and some readings for freshmen (or first-years) excited about our election and heading for college. They also apply to the rest of us long-time voters who… More

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– Robert D. Kaplan, “Machiavelli’s Virtue,” Stratfor Global Intelligence, March 20, 2013.
Excerpt: Self-interest informs compromise with other human beings, and thus a state governed by self-interest is likely to compromise with other states: whereas a person or state governed… More

Birth of the Modern

– "Birth of the Modern," Wall Street Journal, 23 June 2013.
Excerpt: For this grand role, the mind of Machiavelli must have been capable of acting on its own, informed but not dictated by the events of the time. Machiavelli had much to say on this… More

Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?

– Harvey C. Mansfield "Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?" Panel hosted by Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, September 19, 2013.
Panel 1 (of 4) from a conference on the 500th anniversary of the writing of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, held on Thursday, September 19, 2013 and hosted by the Program on… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– “Machiavelli’s Enterprise,” The New Criterion (October 2013).
Excerpt: To create the modern world Machiavelli initiated a two-fold transformation of politics and philosophy that would bring them together: politics with the elevation of philosophy and… More

Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox

– CBC Radio Ideas with Paul Kennedy. "Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox" Nov 5, 2013. CBC Radio 1.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC “Ideas” radio program on Machiavelli featuring Harvey C. Mansfield, Clifford Orwin, Michelle Clarke, and Erica Brenner. Comedian Rick… More

Tocqueville’s Machiavellianism

– Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthop, “Tocqueville's Machiavellianism,” Perspectives on Political Science 43, no. 2 (Apr.–June 2014): 87–92.  
Abstract: Tocqueville’s sole reference to Machiavelli in Democracy in America is a nicely located misquotation. This article makes much of it, more than one would likely think… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– "Machiavelli's Enterprise," Machiavelli's Legacy, Timothy Fuller ed., University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2015.
Mansfield has an essay in the volume Machiavelli’s Legacy: The Prince after Five Hundred Years, just out from the University of Pennsylvania Press. From the publisher: Niccolo… More

Multimedia

Necessity in the Beginning of Cities

– "Necessity in the Beginning of Cities," The Political Calculus: Essays in Machiavelli's Philosophy,  A. Parel, ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972, pp. 101-126.

Review of The Machiavellian Moment

– Review of The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, by J. G. A. Pocock, American Political Science Review, vol. 71 (1977): 1151-52.

The Ambivalence of Executive Power

– "The Ambivalence of Executive Power," The Presidency in the Constitutional Order,  J. Bessette and J. Tulis, eds.,  Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1981, pp. 314-334.

Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue

– Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue: Classical Tradition and Humanist Innovation, by D. Marsh, Review of Metaphysics, vol. 34 (June 1981): 794-95.

Machiavelli’s The Prince

– A new translation with introduction, University of Chicago Press, 1985; second edition, with corrections and a glossary, 1998.

How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?

– "How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?," review of Citizen Machiavelli, by Mark Hulliung, Review of Politics, vol. 47 (1985): 298-300.

Machiavelli and the Modern Executive

– "Machiavelli and the Modern Executive," Understanding the Political Spirit, Catherine H. Zuckert, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, pp. 88-110.

Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power

– The Free Press, 1989; paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. The Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (April 1, 1993)
Excerpt: To understand the modern doctrine of executive power, we need to know, at least approximately, what executive power is. It might at first seem best to go directly to the thing and… More

Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince

– Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince: Anti-Machiavellianism or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe, by Robert Bireley, American Historical Review, vol. 97 (February 1992): 182.

Review of Machiavelli in Hell

– Review of Machiavelli in Hell, by Sebastian de Grazia, and The Machiavellian Cosmos, by Anthony J. Parel, American Political Science Review, vol. 87 (1993): 764-65.
Excerpt: 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… More

The Unfinished Revolution

– "The Unfinished Revolution," Three Beginnings: Revolution, Rights, and the Liberal State,  Stephen F. Englehart and John Allphin Moore, Jr., eds.,  New York: Peter Lang, 1994, pp. 9-30.  Reprinted in The Legacy of the French Revolution, Ralph C. Hancock and L. Gary Lambert, eds., Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. pp. 19-41.

Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress

– "Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress," History and the Idea of Progress, Arthur Melzer, jerry Weinberger, and Richard Zinman, eds., Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Ancient or Modern?

– "Ancient or Modern?" review of Machiavelli's Three Romes, by Vickie B. Sullivan, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April 1997.

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 25, 1998)
Excerpt: Machiavelli’s political science has not received the attention it deserves. All commentators are attracted, with a force they often seem not to understand, by the question of… More

Review of Machiavelli

– Review of Machiavelli, by Maurizio Viroli, American Political Science Review, vol. 93 (1999): 964-65.

Consulting Old Nick

– "Consulting Old Nick," review of Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, by Michael Ledeen, and The New Prince, by Dick Morris, Wall Street Journal, 10 June 1999, A24.

The Cuckold in Machiavelli’s Mandragola

– "The Cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli; Essays on the Literary Works, Vickie B. Sullivan, ed., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 1-29.

Educating the Prince Eds. Blitz/Kristol

Educating the Prince: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Mark Blitz and William Kristol, eds., Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
In this festschrift for Harvey Mansfield, twenty-one former students, themselves distinguished scholars and writers, reflect on the whole gambit of Mansfieldian themes, from Machiavelli… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism

“Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism,” Renaissance Civic Humanism, James Hankins, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 223-246. Read online: Google Books |… More

A Student’s Guide to Political Philosophy

– Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2001.
Excerpt: Political Philosophy is found in great books—those by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau and others of the highest rank—and in books by professors. You should spend much more… More

Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists

– "Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2001.
Excerpt: These are the words of Edmund Burke, referring to a corps of irregulars used to enforce the tyranny of the French Revolution. I hope I will not be drafted into the “blame… More

Rational Control

– “Rational Control,” The New Criterion, September 2006, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 39-44.
Excerpt: In the brand new building where I work, the lights go on and off, the shades go up and down, and the toilets flush, automatically, without your having to turn a switch or push a… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Arts of Rule Eds. Krause/McGrail

The Arts of Rule: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Sharon R. Krause and Mary Ann McGrail, eds., Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.
Excerpt: This is a book about the arts of rule. It has been created for the purpose of honoring Harvey C. Mansfield, who has taught so many of us so much about these arts. Above all, he has… More

Taming the Prince

– "Taming the Prince," lecture delivered to the John Marshall International Center for the Study of Statesmanship, 16 October 2009.

Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?

– "Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?", Defining Ideas, 30 August 2012.
Excerpt: Here are some thoughts and some readings for freshmen (or first-years) excited about our election and heading for college. They also apply to the rest of us long-time voters who… More

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– Robert D. Kaplan, “Machiavelli’s Virtue,” Stratfor Global Intelligence, March 20, 2013.
Excerpt: Self-interest informs compromise with other human beings, and thus a state governed by self-interest is likely to compromise with other states: whereas a person or state governed… More

Birth of the Modern

– "Birth of the Modern," Wall Street Journal, 23 June 2013.
Excerpt: For this grand role, the mind of Machiavelli must have been capable of acting on its own, informed but not dictated by the events of the time. Machiavelli had much to say on this… More

Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?

– Harvey C. Mansfield "Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?" Panel hosted by Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, September 19, 2013.
Panel 1 (of 4) from a conference on the 500th anniversary of the writing of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, held on Thursday, September 19, 2013 and hosted by the Program on… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– “Machiavelli’s Enterprise,” The New Criterion (October 2013).
Excerpt: To create the modern world Machiavelli initiated a two-fold transformation of politics and philosophy that would bring them together: politics with the elevation of philosophy and… More

Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox

– CBC Radio Ideas with Paul Kennedy. "Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox" Nov 5, 2013. CBC Radio 1.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC “Ideas” radio program on Machiavelli featuring Harvey C. Mansfield, Clifford Orwin, Michelle Clarke, and Erica Brenner. Comedian Rick… More

Tocqueville’s Machiavellianism

– Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthop, “Tocqueville's Machiavellianism,” Perspectives on Political Science 43, no. 2 (Apr.–June 2014): 87–92.  
Abstract: Tocqueville’s sole reference to Machiavelli in Democracy in America is a nicely located misquotation. This article makes much of it, more than one would likely think… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– "Machiavelli's Enterprise," Machiavelli's Legacy, Timothy Fuller ed., University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2015.
Mansfield has an essay in the volume Machiavelli’s Legacy: The Prince after Five Hundred Years, just out from the University of Pennsylvania Press. From the publisher: Niccolo… More

Teaching

Necessity in the Beginning of Cities

– "Necessity in the Beginning of Cities," The Political Calculus: Essays in Machiavelli's Philosophy,  A. Parel, ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972, pp. 101-126.

Review of The Machiavellian Moment

– Review of The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, by J. G. A. Pocock, American Political Science Review, vol. 71 (1977): 1151-52.

The Ambivalence of Executive Power

– "The Ambivalence of Executive Power," The Presidency in the Constitutional Order,  J. Bessette and J. Tulis, eds.,  Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1981, pp. 314-334.

Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue

– Review of The Quattrocento Dialogue: Classical Tradition and Humanist Innovation, by D. Marsh, Review of Metaphysics, vol. 34 (June 1981): 794-95.

Machiavelli’s The Prince

– A new translation with introduction, University of Chicago Press, 1985; second edition, with corrections and a glossary, 1998.

How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?

– "How Dangerous Is Machiavelli?," review of Citizen Machiavelli, by Mark Hulliung, Review of Politics, vol. 47 (1985): 298-300.

Machiavelli and the Modern Executive

– "Machiavelli and the Modern Executive," Understanding the Political Spirit, Catherine H. Zuckert, ed., New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, pp. 88-110.

Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power

– The Free Press, 1989; paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. The Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (April 1, 1993)
Excerpt: To understand the modern doctrine of executive power, we need to know, at least approximately, what executive power is. It might at first seem best to go directly to the thing and… More

Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince

– Review of The Counter-Reformation Prince: Anti-Machiavellianism or Catholic Statecraft in Early Modern Europe, by Robert Bireley, American Historical Review, vol. 97 (February 1992): 182.

Review of Machiavelli in Hell

– Review of Machiavelli in Hell, by Sebastian de Grazia, and The Machiavellian Cosmos, by Anthony J. Parel, American Political Science Review, vol. 87 (1993): 764-65.
Excerpt: 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… More

The Unfinished Revolution

– "The Unfinished Revolution," Three Beginnings: Revolution, Rights, and the Liberal State,  Stephen F. Englehart and John Allphin Moore, Jr., eds.,  New York: Peter Lang, 1994, pp. 9-30.  Reprinted in The Legacy of the French Revolution, Ralph C. Hancock and L. Gary Lambert, eds., Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996. pp. 19-41.

Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress

– "Machiavelli and the Idea of Progress," History and the Idea of Progress, Arthur Melzer, jerry Weinberger, and Richard Zinman, eds., Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Ancient or Modern?

– "Ancient or Modern?" review of Machiavelli's Three Romes, by Vickie B. Sullivan, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April 1997.

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 25, 1998)
Excerpt: Machiavelli’s political science has not received the attention it deserves. All commentators are attracted, with a force they often seem not to understand, by the question of… More

Review of Machiavelli

– Review of Machiavelli, by Maurizio Viroli, American Political Science Review, vol. 93 (1999): 964-65.

Consulting Old Nick

– "Consulting Old Nick," review of Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, by Michael Ledeen, and The New Prince, by Dick Morris, Wall Street Journal, 10 June 1999, A24.

The Cuckold in Machiavelli’s Mandragola

– "The Cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola," The Comedy and Tragedy of Machiavelli; Essays on the Literary Works, Vickie B. Sullivan, ed., New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 1-29.

Educating the Prince Eds. Blitz/Kristol

Educating the Prince: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Mark Blitz and William Kristol, eds., Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
In this festschrift for Harvey Mansfield, twenty-one former students, themselves distinguished scholars and writers, reflect on the whole gambit of Mansfieldian themes, from Machiavelli… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism

“Bruni and Machiavelli on Civic Humanism,” Renaissance Civic Humanism, James Hankins, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 223-246. Read online: Google Books |… More

A Student’s Guide to Political Philosophy

– Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2001.
Excerpt: Political Philosophy is found in great books—those by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau and others of the highest rank—and in books by professors. You should spend much more… More

Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists

– "Those Hell-Hounds Called Terrorists," Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2001.
Excerpt: These are the words of Edmund Burke, referring to a corps of irregulars used to enforce the tyranny of the French Revolution. I hope I will not be drafted into the “blame… More

Rational Control

– “Rational Control,” The New Criterion, September 2006, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 39-44.
Excerpt: In the brand new building where I work, the lights go on and off, the shades go up and down, and the toilets flush, automatically, without your having to turn a switch or push a… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Arts of Rule Eds. Krause/McGrail

The Arts of Rule: Essays in Honor of Harvey Mansfield, Sharon R. Krause and Mary Ann McGrail, eds., Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.
Excerpt: This is a book about the arts of rule. It has been created for the purpose of honoring Harvey C. Mansfield, who has taught so many of us so much about these arts. Above all, he has… More

Taming the Prince

– "Taming the Prince," lecture delivered to the John Marshall International Center for the Study of Statesmanship, 16 October 2009.

Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?

– "Are You Smarter Than a Freshman?", Defining Ideas, 30 August 2012.
Excerpt: Here are some thoughts and some readings for freshmen (or first-years) excited about our election and heading for college. They also apply to the rest of us long-time voters who… More

Machiavelli’s Virtue

– Robert D. Kaplan, “Machiavelli’s Virtue,” Stratfor Global Intelligence, March 20, 2013.
Excerpt: Self-interest informs compromise with other human beings, and thus a state governed by self-interest is likely to compromise with other states: whereas a person or state governed… More

Birth of the Modern

– "Birth of the Modern," Wall Street Journal, 23 June 2013.
Excerpt: For this grand role, the mind of Machiavelli must have been capable of acting on its own, informed but not dictated by the events of the time. Machiavelli had much to say on this… More

Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?

– Harvey C. Mansfield "Is Machiavelli a Philosopher?" Panel hosted by Program on Constitutional Government, Harvard University, September 19, 2013.
Panel 1 (of 4) from a conference on the 500th anniversary of the writing of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, held on Thursday, September 19, 2013 and hosted by the Program on… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– “Machiavelli’s Enterprise,” The New Criterion (October 2013).
Excerpt: To create the modern world Machiavelli initiated a two-fold transformation of politics and philosophy that would bring them together: politics with the elevation of philosophy and… More

Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox

– CBC Radio Ideas with Paul Kennedy. "Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox" Nov 5, 2013. CBC Radio 1.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC “Ideas” radio program on Machiavelli featuring Harvey C. Mansfield, Clifford Orwin, Michelle Clarke, and Erica Brenner. Comedian Rick… More

Tocqueville’s Machiavellianism

– Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthop, “Tocqueville's Machiavellianism,” Perspectives on Political Science 43, no. 2 (Apr.–June 2014): 87–92.  
Abstract: Tocqueville’s sole reference to Machiavelli in Democracy in America is a nicely located misquotation. This article makes much of it, more than one would likely think… More

Machiavelli’s Enterprise

– "Machiavelli's Enterprise," Machiavelli's Legacy, Timothy Fuller ed., University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 2015.
Mansfield has an essay in the volume Machiavelli’s Legacy: The Prince after Five Hundred Years, just out from the University of Pennsylvania Press. From the publisher: Niccolo… More