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“This energetic little book…offers a knowing guide to Machiavelli’s life and work…Boucheron makes a clever case.” —New York Times
“To reframe our understanding of Machiavelli, Mr. Boucheron asks, Who was he writing for?…If The Prince was meant to help ordinary people understand what their leaders were up to, then it is not a handbook for the power-crazed but a means of stopping them.” —Wall Street Journal
“Packed with insights into how Machiavelli has been construed and misconstrued down the ages and why his ideas still resonate so powerfully today…Boucheron’s book…reminds us that Machiavelli is no advocate of unbridled state violence.” —Financial Times
“A penetrating portrait of a complex political thinker.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Machiavelli provide[s] a distinct perspective on the influential philosopher…Readers looking to learn more about the thinker, as well as those seeking an introduction, will find this creative work appealing.” —Library Journal
“This wise, witty, razor-sharp anatomy of Machiavelli demonstrates why the most notorious thinker of the Renaissance is the perfect companion for our own time.” —Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
“An elegant introduction to this disturbing, incisive, many-sided thinker—and a reminder of why we must read him right now.” —Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live: A Life of Montaigne
“Patrick Boucheron gives us a trenchant analysis of Machiavelli’s complex and slippery ideas. Even more useful and illuminating, with Machiavelli as his guide, he probes our own political life and times. In an age of shrill and often senseless debate, it’s a pleasure to read such a subtle and gently provoking thinker.” —Ross King, author of Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power
“An energetic new book by Patrick Boucheron offers a knowing guide to the Renaissance statesman and writer’s life and work.” —John Williams, New York Times Editors’ Choice
“Machiavelli is the antidote we need to today’s delusion that reality can be virtual or augmented—that is, easily doctored by us ourselves or the media. Reading him now is necessary, more than ever before. But who reads him? Patrick Boucheron’s little book is by far the best inducement to Machiavelli that I know of, to the point that I will have students read Boucheron’s Machiavelli rather than Machiavelli’s Prince in my surveys. I am sure that they will then get to the Prince, and not for class, but for themselves.” —Francesco Erspamer, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, and Director of the Harvard Summer Program in Milan and Siena
“It is never too late to break the clichés surrounding Machiavelli. He is never going out of fashion.” —Le Figaro
“Patrick Boucheron has the talent of good teachers: he makes history accessible for everyone.” —Le Monde
“To bring back Machiavelli, that captivating mind of the Renaissance, nothing equals the great Patrick Boucheron” —Télérama