"It is not the well-being of individuals that makes cities great, but the well-being of the community"

Few figures in intellectual history have proved as notorious and ambiguous as Niccolo Machiavelli. But while his treatise The Prince made his name synonymous with autocratic ruthlessness and cynical manipulation, The Discourses (c.1517) shows a radically different outlook on the world of politics. In this carefully argued commentary on Livy's history of republican Rome, Machiavelli proposed a system of government that would uphold civic freedom and security by...

First published in 1950, this translation by the late Leslie J. Walker provides an English language version of this seminal work in political theory. In his introduction, Father Walker explains under what conditions Machiavelli came to formulate his theory and examines the postulates upon which Machiavelli's new method was based, analyzing both the writings concerned with virtu and the conflict between morality and political interest.