Machiavelli's Three Romes

Vickie Sullivan's book is an important and useful contribution to this literature. It combines meticulous scholarship with provocative and insightful analysis. While issuing directly from this literature, and thus in a sense the intellectual heir of these debates, it attempts to overcome their dualistic character by presenting an alternative and original interpretation. In the process Sullivan provides a novel and intriguing perspective to both the Straussian and civic republican interpretations of Machiavelli. * American Political Science Review * [Sulllivan's] rhetorical stance is one of revaluation, and her rhetorical methodology is one of close, painstaking textual analysis. * The Sixteenth Century Journal * Machiavelli's three Romes, according to Vickie B. Sullivan's nicely argued book, are Christian Rome, ancient Rome and his own - a critique and appropriation of the first two. * Times Literary Supplement * Her incisive and clever analysis, comparable to Victoria Kahn's Machiavellian Rhetoric, deserves a place on a shelf that include Sebastian DeGrazia, Felix Gilbert, Harvey Mansfield, Jr., J.G.A. Pocock, Leo Strauss, and Quentin Skinner. Although clearly intended for a discerning audience of graduate students and faculty, Sullivan's clear prose and powerful insight will captivate upper-division undergraduates and general readers of political philosophy. * Choice * She advances the novel proposition that Machiavelli is the enemy of all religion.... an important new study, cogently argued and beautifully written * The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science *