Description: This book gives a radical, new, chapter-by-chapter reading of Machiavelli's The Prince, arguing that it is an ironic masterpiece with a moral purpose. It outlines Machiavelli's most important ironic techniques: a normatively coded use of language.
Review Quotes: "In this powerful and provocative re-reading, Erica Benner, the author of Machiavelli's Ethics, boldly challenges conventional wisdom concerning Machiavelli's purposes in The Prince by revealing his artful and subtle use, informed by ancient philosophical techniques, of irony and dissimulation to make the text mean other than what it seems to say. Benner's stimulating reinterpretation is a 'must read' that will compel you to rethink everything you thought you knew about The Prince." --John Najemy, Professor of History, Cornell University
"Erica Benner's Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading thoroughly lives up to its title. No other work before has so comprehensively interrogated the structure, rhetoric and sources of Machiavelli's infamous 'little book.' In particular, Benner draws upon the individual figures, classical and contemporary, invoked by the Florentine to shine new light on the ultimate purposes of Machiavelli's lessons. Moreover, Benner rigorously interrogates Machiavelli's use of irony to highlight his argumentative strategy in a novel way. Benner's work serves as a must-read during this 500th anniversary of the composition of Il Principe, and will continue to be required reading for many years to come." --John McCormick, Professor, Political Science Department, University of Chicago
"For Benner, Machiavelli's problematic passages have a purpose. They are the visible peaks of an iceberg of substantial ethical thought, intended to alert the reader to a thoroughgoing
moralizing irony that characterized all of Machiavelli's writing." -- William J. Connel, The Review of Politics