Building upon and branching out from his searching and insightful work on Thucydides, Michael Palmer here offers a series of wide-ranging essays on ancient and modern philosophy. The highlight of the book is a set of essays on Machiavelli, including a penetrating analysis of Mandragola that freshly illuminates the Italian philosopher's achievement as a dramatist.

Paul Cantor, University of Virginia

This edition of Michael Palmer's essays is a very welcome publishing event. Ranging from the political thought of the ancients to that of the moderns, Palmer's touch is sure. All serious political theorists will want this book on their shelf.

Jean M. Yarbrough, Bowdoin College

Michael Palmer is one of the most successful teachers of political philosophy in North America today. This collection of his essays shows why. Palmer ranges over the entire history of political thought, combining careful scholarship with trenchant analysis, shedding clear new light on perennial texts and perennial problems.

Clifford Orwin, University of Toronto

The incisive little summary diagnosis of The Prince, by itself, apart from the other gems, makes Palmer's a book to have.

Robert Faulkner, Boston College

Ranging with graceful erudition and lively intelligence over major figures in the history of political thought from Aristotle to the present, this is a collection of illuminating interpretive studies that will richly reward both students and scholars.

Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at Austin