Discourses on Livy

Discourses on Livy is the founding document of modern republicanism, and Harvey C. Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov have provided the definitive English translation of this classic work. Faithful to the original Italian text, properly attentive to Machiavelli's idiom and subtlety of thought, it is eminently readable. With a substantial introduction, extensive explanatory notes, a glossary of key words, and an annotated index, the Discourses reveals Machiavelli's radical vision of a new science of politics, a vision of "new modes and orders" that continue to shape the modern ethos.
"[Machiavelli] found in Livy the means to inspire scholars for five centuries. Within the Discourses, often hidden and sometimes unintended by their author, lie the seeds of modern political thought. . [Mansfield and Tarcov's] translation is careful and idiomatic."—Peter Stothard, The Times
"Translated with painstaking accuracy—but also great readability."—Weekly Standard
"A model of contemporary scholarship and a brave effort at Machiavelli translation that allows the great Florentine to speak in his own voice."—Choice
"In thiS mtroductlon we offer a quick tour through Machiavelli's DIscourses on Dvy. We shall mark the four-star attractions that tourists will want to visit repeatedly and wish to remember. The great Machiavellian themes of polt tics, morality, fortune, necessity, and religion will be set forth, together with the controversies they have touched off. For Machiavelli, to say the least, did not wnte m such a mode as to prevent dispute about what he said. We consider the fact that Machiavelli wrote at the same time two very different books on the whole of polttiCS, The Pnnce and the Discourses. We provide a brief appraisal of the latrer's schoLrrly reputation today as the first source of clasSical republi canism, as the recollectlOn of ancient liberty that calls us to venture from the settled and secure realm of property and self-interest. And we present Machia velli himself, not a disengaged phtlosopher but the instigator m the schemes he advised, an actor in hiS own enterprise of bringing "new modes and orders ... for the common benefit of everyone" (D I pro I). As befits an introduction, we try to speak with both modesty and authority."