Machiavelli and us /

This short book from French political philosopher Althusser's lecture notes on Machiavelli is an interesting piece of political philosophy that is well worth reading. First, it shows a secure grasp of the problems of exegesis of the Machiavellian corpus. Althusser (1918-90) takes up hard questions, including the apparent discrepancy between The Prince and the Discourses, whether the evil connotation assigned to the epithet "Machiavellian" is deserved, and the relation of theory and practice in these works. Second, this work is an excellent example of Marxist criticism applied to a well-known philosophical classic. However, it also reveals the weaknesses of such an approach. In the end Althusser's resolution of the Machiavellian conundrums he tackles rests too heavily on his Marxist assumptions; viz., he attributes to Machiavelli the thesis that the "New Principality" will result from the encounter between fortuna and virtu and cannot be described because it must wait for history, or its historical moment. Graduate students and sophisticated undergraduates in political philosophy will enjoy this book and find it very rewarding. Most undergraduates will find it beyond them. S. C. Schwarze; Cabrini College