Machiavelli’s Rome and Sparta
In the dedicatory letter to his Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli reveals his intended audience, “I have chosen not those who are princes, but those who for their…
In the dedicatory letter to his Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli reveals his intended audience, “I have chosen not those who are princes, but those who for their…
The Prince was written by Niccolo Machiavelli during the Renaissance as a guide to rulers. His advice is meant to allow rulers to govern and maintain their…
Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy. James Hankins. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019. Among contemporary readers and even well-seasoned scholars…
One of Leo Strauss’ most famous contributions to the study of modern political theory is his known idea of the “three waves of modernity”, in which Strauss…
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he…
Our Religion, The Political State, Private Life “For in here,” reads François Rabelais’s prologue to Gargantua, “you will find quite a different taste and more abstruse doctrine,…
Machiavelli is often cited as a progenitor of modern politics and the modern state. How might Machiavelli’s thought inform our present and future state? This essay is…
No one would dispute that Shakespeare was interested in political questions. Much of his theatrical output focuses on medieval monarchs and ancient Roman civil wars. Plays such…
If you have the privilege, or assigned job, teaching a course on the "History of Political Thought," you might think that most students of political science would…
Scholars, practitioners, and more casual observers of leadership often talk about Niccolo Machiavelli in the context of leadership practices. Substantially fewer seem to be well read on…
Like Strauss, Eric Voegelin also went into exile after the rise of National Socialism. Voegelin came to the United States after the occupation of Austria in 1938,…
The Kingdom Suffereth Violence: The Machiavelli/Erasmus/More Correspondence and Other Unpublished Documents. Philippe Bénéton. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2012. We all know the student who,…