The many Machiavellis

Up to a point, to understand him [Machiavelli, n.d.r.] is to understand the Renaissance. But understanding Machiavelli has never been easy. Philosophers as different as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Carl Schmitt, and Antonio Gramsci all claimed him as a predecessor, but each seemed to embrace a different Machiavelli. To Rousseau, he was a republican; to Schmitt, a realist; to Gramsci, a guide for revolutionaries. All agreed, however, that his searching investigations of human agency had launched a new epoch in political thought. Julianne Werlin, The Chronicle of Higher Education

recensione al libro di Ada Palmer, Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age, uscito di recente per University of Chicago Press