Reading Machiavelli: scandalous books, suspect engagements, and the virtue of populist politics

Introduction. Vulgarity and virtuosity: Machiavelli's elusive "effectual truth"

Part I. The passion of Duke Valentino: Cesare Borgia, biblical allegory, and The prince

"Keep the public rich and the citizens poor": Economic inequality and political corruption in the Discourses

On the myth of a conservative turn in the Florentine histories

Part II. Rousseau's repudiation of Machiavelli's democratic roman republic

Leo Strauss's Machiavelli and the querelle between the few and the many

The Cambridge school's "Guicciardinian moments" revisited

Summation. Scandalous writings, dubious readings, and the virtues of popular empowerment

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index.