The Garments of Court and Palace

March 25, 2013
In this work of historical, philosophical, and political examination, Bobbitt (Terror and Consent) plugs Niccolo Machiavelli's controversial masterpiece, The Prince, into its proper context, one that Bobbitt asserts has gone overlooked by most scholars: constitutionalism. He spices up even his layout of the most popular misconceptions regarding Machiavelli with the impartible thrill of tumbling these dustyânot to mention contradictoryâassumptions. An historical overview not only contextualizes major events in Machiavelli's life within Florence's shifting feudal environment but also highlights how influential a political leader he remained until his fall. Correcting misapprehensions, Bobbitt establishes Machiavelli as a political oracle of sorts who perceived the soft boil of a new governmental order at a time when most couldn't see beyond the boundaries of feudalism. In debunking larger myths, he upsets smaller inaccuracies as well, unraveling misunderstandings regarding both the true translation of Machiavelli's "virtù" and the political forecaster's role as "apostle of modernity". While Bobbitt frequently segues from the feudal to the modern era to properly illuminate a concepts, latter sections of his book see him focus intensely on the present, and on how Machiavellian means of viewing an agitated state order may prove especially helpful now.

February 15, 2013
A convoluted return to the misunderstood work of the wily Florentine bureaucrat and philosopher. Bobbitt (Law, Center for National Security/Columbia Univ.; Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century, 2008, etc.) aims to strip some of the disfiguring tarnish from Machiavelli's work by redefining his authorial aim as one providing a map for the new constitutional order that was emerging from republican Florence in the early 16th century. The author rejects the "five particular ideas" about The Prince that developed soon after its posthumous publication in 1532: that it is a "mirror book" composed for the edification of a ruling prince at court on how to behave in the tradition of Cicero or Erasmus; that the book is incompatible with his previous writing on republican government; that Machiavelli was unable to reconcile his essential notions of destiny and fate; that The Prince was a kind of "employment application" for work in the new republic; and that it separates ethics from politics, thus allowing it to become bedside reading for Napoleon, Mussolini and Hitler. Bobbitt finds in Machiavelli a prophetic poet of the new age, whose cleareyed exhortations on realpolitik ("princes who have actually accomplished great things are those who cared little for keeping faith and knew how to manipulate men with cunning") reversed expectations of the Renaissance humanist. The author looks carefully at problematic passages that seem to question Machiavelli's moral values, yet sees in him "an intense moralist" whose allegiances were to the good of the state rather than the good of the prince. Machiavelli's ideas of consequentialism, "good laws and good arms" and virtu e fortuna were all rather shocking at the time and heralded a new world order. Bobbitt examines these and more, but the narrative is oddly structured and likely to appeal only to other academics. Dense, repetitive commentary that may lead some readers back to The Prince.

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October 15, 2012
All right, "Borgias" fans; here's a serious study of a work by one of the series' top characters. Director of the Center for National Security at Columbia University, Bobbitt aims to explain "The Prince" within the context of Niccolo Machiavelli's time and place, burgeoning Renaissance Italy. Often regarded as a story of cynical statesmanship, "The Prince" in fact captures a moment when the State effectively consolidated under the rule of law. For your upscale readers.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2013
Riddles for centuries, the beginning and ending of Machiavelli's The Prince have finally found a plausible explanation. Bobbitt finds that explanation in Machiavelli's abiding desire, expressed in his Discourses on Livy, to see feudal regimes replaced by modern, constitutionally ordered states. This desire accounts for Machiavelli's otherwise baffling decision to dedicate The Prince to Cesare Borgia, a deeply flawed ruler, albeit one commanding the resources needed to found a modern constitutional state. Machiavelli's desire for fundamental political change also, in Bobbitt's view, accounts for the strange conclusion of The Prince, where the author uncharacteristically pleads for the expulsion of foreign armies from Italy, in which he wanted a model new state to emerge. Bobbitt also takes Machiavelli's commitment to creating political reform as the key to understanding The Prince not, as is commonly supposed, as a mirror book advising individual rulers on conduct but, rather, as an outline of modern constitutional principles that may entail political duties that violate personal morality. A provocative yet plausible foray into oft-contested terrain.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)