Machiavelli's Effectual Truth

Harvey C. Mansfield has spent his life at Harvard, where he studies and teaches political philosophy. He is a translator of Machiavelli and Tocqueville, writing on Edmund Burke, the invention of indirect government, defensible and constitutional liberalism, the discovery of the theory of executive power, and the nature of manliness. He has received the National Humanities Medal (2004), delivered the annual Thomas Jefferson lecture (2007), and has been awarded the Bradley Prize.

• 1. Machiavelli's succession problem; 2. Machiavelli's world; 3. Leo Strauss on The Prince; 4. The cuckold in Machiavelli's Mandragola; 5. Leonardo Bruni and Machiavelli on civic humanism; 6. Montesquieu and Machiavelli; 7. Tocqueville's Machiavellianism.

'Mansfield has a signature way of reading and writing, which is on full display in Machiavelli's Effectual Truth. As a reader, he is not afraid to make bold conjectures about arguments, suggestions, and intentions that an author does not state plainly but conveys between the lines of his text. As a writer, he blends simplicity and subtle sophistication. Mansfield is a master at using simple, unpretentious words in phrases that are more artful and telling than they first appear.' Devin Stauffer, Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin