Machiavelli’s thought has attracted some of the very best of academic minds: Baron, Berlin and Skinner to name but three. In this rich and provocative book it is Hulliung’s contention that these writers, and others, have missed the true thrust of Machiavelli’s thought. . . . Hulliung’s case is an impressive one. It should be taken to heart.” —Terry Hopton, Political Studies “Hulliung has . . . written a stimulating and challenging book, which deserves to be taken seriously by anyone interested in Machiavelli.” —Marcia L. Colish, American Historical Review “This book is comprehensive and sprightly.” —Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., The Review of Politics "Gracefully written and forcefully argued, Citizen Machiavelli is a welcome addition to the literature and a useful antidote to any excessive defanging of the illustrious and troubling Florentine." —Ethics "Hulliung takes a cool fresh look at the texts. He sees The Prince not as an aberration but as a typical work of Machiavelli's. . . . Like his hero, [he] obviously enjoys subverting and indeed inverting intellectual traditions." —The Times Literary Supplement “Despite the fact that Machiavelli intended much of his writing for a particular audience and a limited historical and political context, his work continues to generate a universal appeal which has resulted in hundreds of critical studies especially in the twentieth century. His new Prince, for example, has provoked interpretations ranging from that by the early twentieth century political thinker, Francesco Ercole, who transformed Machiavelli’s vision to justify the political and historical necessity of the Fascist ‘Duce,’ to that by the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, who saw the Prince as an ‘anthropomorphic symbol’ of the ‘collective will’ personifying the communist party, to the most recent study by Mark Hulliung, Citizen Machiavelli, which in rejecting the revisionist interpretations, attempts to reinstate the authenticity of Machiavelli’s shocking, scandalous, and subversive quality. . . . Hulliung’s radical effort is to ‘save Machiavelli from his saviors . . . to demythologize’ him, and thus to restore and authenticate his real meaning. In destroying the five versions of the standard Machiavelli he specifies in Chapter VII, Hulliung establishes his own critical approach and school of thought, one which may attract as many followers as whose he has so convincingly demolished.” —Silvia Ruffo-Fiore, The Sixteenth Century Journal “The author’s case is presented with lucidity, wit, force, and single-mindedness. . . . Like Machiavelli again, Hulliung has aimed to shock, to force a rethinking of accepted truths, and in this he has been successful.” —Roslyn Pesman Cooper, The Journal of Modern History “Hulliung . . . has argued very forcefully that Machiavelli should be read as he was originally and that the Machiavelli of Gentillet or the fascists truly existed, despite the attempts of many modern scholars to rehabilitate him. Hulliung’s analysis is compelling and his knowledge of his sources profound. . . . Citizen Machiavelli is one of the most stimulating books on Machiavelli to appear in many years. Whether the reader is convinced by the argument is second to the fact that his or her received opinion of the Florentine will be challenged in a fundamental way.” —Kenneth Bartlett, Canadian Journal of History “Mark Hulliung has written a book that is more than an interpretation of Machiavelli. Citizen Machiavelli is also a book about ‘interpreting Machiavelli’. . . . [It is a] rich and suggestive treatment of Machiavelli’s work.” —Bruce James Smith, Political Theory “Professor Hulliung’s book identifies sound premises, and succeeds in developing a constantly stimulating argument. As a whole, this intelligent work is a demanding and interesting study.” —Fredi Chiappelli, Renaissance Quarterly
