The Prince: A Historical Critique.

Rudowski's "historical critique" of The Prince, one of the most influential classic texts of western literature, avoids the complications of most Machiavelli scholarship by presenting a lucid, well-written, and engaging study free of often muddling secondary references. Following an annotated chronology of Machiavelli's life, the text briefly surveys the literary and historical context of this masterwork which describes the historical background, defines the work's importance, and traces its critical reception. Part two, unassumingly labelled "A Reading," focuses concisely and clearly on the major issues, figures, and themes in the Florentine's little book, beginning with a discussion of how he came to compose it (chapter 4) and its place within his larger canon, particularly the Discourses (chapter 5). Chapters 6 and 7 detail how Louis XII of France exemplified the hereditary prince while Cesare Borgia personified the new prince and what impact their actions had on European and Italian history. Chapters 8 through 11 present a thoughtful and pertinent analysis of the five ways men rise from private life to the rule of a principality (virtu, fortuna, criminal acts, favor, and religious office), the role of military power in successful political rule, Machiavelli's pessimistic assessment of human nature and its connection to the political functions of state religion, and the exemplary uses of his cyclical view of history. Chapter 12 recalls the "posthumous notoriety" accrued by this remarkably evocative and perennially relevant work.

Rudowski's specialized volume on The Prince, one of the Twayne Masterwork Series, represents a valuable companion-piece to the previously published, more comprehensive Twayne study of Machiavelli's works by Ruffo Fiore, Niccolo Machiavelli. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982. The value of these Twayne texts is that they allow for ground-breaking scholarly exploration while at the same time being written in a format and style suitable for students and general readers. Such an approach permits a wider appreciation and diffusion of information and analyses about some of the greatest, most influential, and continually pertinent writers and works.

Rudowski's study is an elegant, gracefully written and carefully synthesized reassessment of Machiavelli's controversial and disturbing work. One of the many commendable points about Rudowski's extensive historical critique is the thorough and comprehensive knowledge it reflects of Machiavelli's total canon and how his other writings enlighten and inform the stark dicta of The Prince. Rudowski places the Florentine's sometimes shocking pronouncements and radical ideas within the context of the wider historical and cultural arena and within the canonical relevance of Machiavelli's other writings where those terse statements and provocative ideas are rationalized, developed, and exemplified in greater depth and detail. This approach corrects the standard one, resulting in so much misinformation and misunderstanding, which unduly focuses on the final third of The Prince as though it were conceived and written within a sterile vacuum. Rudowski's evenhanded critique is also enhanced by an enlightening discussion of how Machiavelli's understanding of historical precedence, ancient and modern, offered an evaluative tool for determining political action in a particular situation. The instrumentality of historical precedence operates within Machiavelli's passionate desire for the independence of Italy from foreign domination and its unification under a single, secular Italian leader.

Rudowski's book is not just another in the thousands of scholarly analyses on this bold, stimulating political innovator. He neither paints Machiavelli as the Devil, nor like E. M. Forster's tourists in Santa Croce (A Room with a View), mistakes his tomb for that of a saint. Rudowski instead contributes a readable, broadly usable, and balanced rethinking of the prophetic nature and undeniable impact of Machiavelli's little book.

Silvia Ruffo Fiore UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA, TAMPA