From Machiavelli to Nietzsche: A Study in Modern Political Philosophy

Harvey Mansfield’s ‘The Rise and Fall of Rational Control’ thoroughly demonstrates how brilliant thinkers have advanced and degraded human freedom.

(Right) Harvey C. Mansfield, author of "The Rise and Fall of Rational Control," looks into the history of modern political thought from Machiavelli to Nietzsche. Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 3.0

To understand the modern age, one must understand modern politics. According to Harvey C. Mansfield, in his new book “The Rise and Fall of Rational Control: The History of Modern Political Philosophy,” the modern age, and thus modern politics, began in the 16th century with Niccolo Machiavelli and it ended with Friedrich Nietzsche.

Modern politics centers around a multi-century effort toward what Mansfield identifies as “rational control.” It is the “idea of the application of reason to revolutionize the life of human beings as individuals and in politics in order to liberate them from the unreason of prejudice, tradition, and superstition.”