Sebastian de Grazia (1917–2000)

Not everything was entirely new to me here, since I feel I am already reading Machiavelli appropriately. But lots of new details I didn’t notice in my own readings. De Grazia draws out all the threads, from morality, to politics, to religion, to love, to literature. De Grazia is a master guide to the writings of Machiavelli. It’s a thematic biography, though, not chronological. I was glad I read Machiavelli: His Life and Times by Lee before I read this one. Lee’s biography is a little show more long in parts but gives a good view of Machiavelli’s life, birth to death. I also read The Prince and the Discourses on Livy before I picked up this book. I don’t know how anyone could evaluate what de Grazia was saying in this book without reading Machiavelli first, at least The Prince. Even having read The Prince and the Discourses, there was so much here that I missed. De Grazia is also very fair to Machiavelli. He doesn’t screw everything up by trying to make Machiavelli part of some scheme to overthrow morality, or Western civilization, or something. You kind of have to know Machiavelli to know how that’s not true. At the same time, this book was enjoyable, and makes me want to read more. show less

The central question ("How is it that the United States has not so much a name, as a formal description standing in for a name, and what does the story behind this fact tell us about the country?") is quite interesting. The fictional story used to relay this argument is hackneyed, especially the romantic sub-plot between student and tutor. Too easy to speculate the romance was added as a way to provoke staid academia, more than for any reason connected with the argument itself. The tutor as show more older English woman, and student as adolescent American boy, is neatly farcical as a premise, but nothing is added by relaying actual conversation between these characters, let alone proposing they go out on a date. show less

Too academic for my purposes. 6 or more pages devoted to a single line from an epithet.