Review by Choice Review
Machiavellism, according to Scharfstein, is "the disregard of moral scruples in politics." The author affirms that politics is "naturally amoral," supporting the point by a wide-ranging survey of examples, stories, and theories. He finds "Machiavellism" everywhere there is politics or even conflict. He gives attention to material from ancient Chinese and Indian writers, and to stories from anthropologists about preliterate tribes. A long chapter reviews the "Machiavellism" of Renaissance Italy. If the author wishes to remind us that cruelty and treachery are common to both literature and history, the book offers much evidence. If the point is to suggest that a clear theoretical response to such phenomena exists, the argument will be harder to accept. The interpretations of important texts are very loose, and the comparisons among widely different cultures and periods are sweeping. Machiavelli himself, much diminished in this account, is presented as but one teller of a familiar and obvious tale rather than a profoundly original thinker with something new to teach. Undergraduates. D. J. Maletz; University of Oklahoma
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
