"In this powerful and provocative re-reading, Erica Benner, the author of Machiavelli's Ethics, boldly challenges conventional wisdom concerning Machiavelli's purposes in The Prince by revealing his artful and subtle use, informed by ancient philosophical techniques, of irony and dissimulation to make the text mean other than what it seems to say. Benner's stimulating reinterpretation is a 'must read' that will compel you to rethink everything you thought you knew about The Prince." --John Najemy, Professor of History, Cornell University "This is a carefully constructed, chapter by chapter analysis of Machiavelli's Prince that will be the interpretation to beat for the next generation of scholars. Where criticism customarily distinguishes what Machiavelli is doing in the Prince from his Discourses, Benner's appreciation of Machiavelli's mastery of irony allows her to present them as woven wholly from the same cloth. The result is a deeply informed, innovative and thoroughly republican reading of Machiavelli's notorious handbook for tyrants." --Mark Philp, Professor of History and Politics, Department of History, University of Warwick "Erica Benner's Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading thoroughly lives up to its title. No other work before has so comprehensively interrogated the structure, rhetoric and sources of Machiavelli's infamous 'little book.' In particular, Benner draws upon the individual figures, classical and contemporary, invoked by the Florentine to shine new light on the ultimate purposes of Machiavelli's lessons.

Moreover, Benner rigorously interrogates Machiavelli's use of irony to highlight his argumentative strategy in a novel way. Benner's work serves as a must-read during this 500th anniversary of the composition of Il Principe, and will continue to be required reading for many years to come." --John McCormick, Professor, Political Science Department, University of Chicago "For Benner, Machiavelli's problematic passages have a purpose. They are the visible peaks of an iceberg of substantial ethical thought, intended to alert the reader to a thoroughgoing moralizing irony that characterized all of Machiavelli's writing." -- William J. Connel, The Review of Politics.