Thoughts on Machiavelli

Thoughts on Machiavelli is a book by Leo Strauss first published in 1958. It collects a series of lectures he gave at the University of Chicago, in which he examines the work of Niccolò Machiavelli in detail.

The book comments on The Prince and the Discourses on Livy. Strauss starts from the most visible impression Machiavelli leaves, that of a teacher of wickedness, but he folds this idea into his interpretation without letting it overwhelm or exhaust his reading of both works. For Strauss, this simple opinion is wholesome, and taking it seriously is necessary to do justice to what is truly admirable in Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his style.