Educating the Prince

Reviews / Votes

Buy this book. The volume contains an introduction by Kristol and 21 impressive and provocative essays. The book also contains a bibliography of Mansfield's writtings, which alone would have made it worth the price. Any Scrapbook student who fails to grab a copy gets an automatic C-minus grade. * The Weekly Standard * Harvey Mansfield is an extraordinary teacher who has, as this fine volume of essays attests, profoundly influenced the lives and thinking of his students. But Professor Mansfield's influence extends beyond the walls of the academy. His insights have deep practical and political importance.Throughout his career Harvey Mansfield has taught us important things about self-government; we need, now more than ever, to heed his wise counsel. -- William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, author of The Book of Virtues In addition to being the world's leading interpreter of Machiavelli and an unblinkingly courageous social commentator, Harvey Mansfield is a superb teacher who has fostered a generation of influential students. The present volume is testimony both to the breadth of Mansfield's interests, and the depth of influence that he has had on contemporary thought about politics and philosophy. -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man Machiavelli urged the prince to rely on his own arms. Harvey Mansfield, a one-man antidote to liberal complacency, relies on his formidable learning and rapier wit. A dazzling teacher, he has inspired a remarkable group of admiring students, as this volume attests. It will provoke and engage readers across the political spectrum. -- Michael J. Sandel Among scholars and citizens, Harvey Mansfield is a prince-a theorist who neither disdains nor is satisfied by political practice, a partisan for whom the truth and the common good always rank above cause, and a bright spirit who knows how much American public life depends on the graces of form and humor. For Americans of all persuasions, Harvey Mansfield is-as these essays testify-an invaluable teacher and example. -- Wilson Carey McWilliams, Rutgers University Harvey Mansfield's students include the undergraduates and graduate students who have been in his Harvard classes, and those of us who have been taught by his remarkably varied writings. The essays in this volume reveal the range of his interests and his students' gratitude. -- George F. Will, Washington Post The range and depth of the 19 essays they have commissioned make the book far more substantial than the average run of such tributes. As one would expect from students of a leading authority and translator of Machiavelli, the author of The Prince figures prominently in these pages. But so do reflections on the American founding and the place of statemanship in modern politics. Add to these the fascinating chapters on Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Kant, Churchill, Solzhenitsyn, common law, ethics in foreign policy, and the place of the federal bureaucracy in the constitutional order-and you begin to understand Mansfield's distinctive contribution to conservative ideas. * National Review * This volume of essays by Mansfield's students attests to the breadth of their teacher's interest and to the liberality that has led a rather diverse group of students to his door. * Public Interest * Educating the Prince covers an amazing range of topics. . . . The essays are almost uniformly of high quality, readable, interesting. * Claremont Review of Books * Most of the contributions are short and crisp; they make a point without worrying it to death. All of them have interesting things to say. * Times Literary Supplement *