She recounts as well as the history of Florence in the late 15th century, which the young Niccolò had occasion to observe and reflect on. She traces the influence of his father, Bernardo, a humanist and armchair political philosopher who, because of heavy tax debts, could not be a candidate for political office, and who passed much of that debt along to his son. Although it does not address Machiavelli’s legacy directly, it offers an important corrective to the distorted portrait that accompanies his name.īenner has perforce written a political biography, beginning her story before Machiavelli enters the scene of Florentine politics. So Benner’s book, even with its imperfections, is a welcome addition to the literature of Machiavelli.

And yet Machiavelli remains a figure in and of the public imagination, less perhaps for himself than for the unfortunate adjective, Machiavellian, that has trailed him and yields more than three million hits in a Google search.

One does not expect to see biographies of Machiavelli reviewed in the Times not even Sebastian de Grazia’s Machiavelli in Hell, which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1990, found its way into those hallowed pages. Norton & Company) 360 pages, including notes, bibliography, and index.Īs I was girding up to write this review, The New York Times published its own review of this most recent book by Erica Benner, a sign to me that the book itself had acquired the status of a publishing event. Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli and His Worldīy Erica Benner (2017, W.W.

Be Like the Fox by Erica Benner