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Rating: 
Summary: Unique and invaluable
Review: The return of this book to print is a great boon to anyone interested in Machiavelli, or who has ever struggled through the Discourses wondering just what Old Nick is getting at.Originally published more than 20 years ago, "New Modes and Orders" remains the only full length commentary on the Discourses ever published in English. As such, it is indespensible, for the Discourses is at once Machiavelli's most difficult and most important book. Those of us who until now have had to rest content with rumaging through library copies dreading the due date will gladly shell out...to have a copy on our own shelves. "New Modes" has often been critized for its reserve bordering on circumspection. There is justice in this criticism. This book is not an easy read, and it does not "explain" the difficulties of the Discourses in a way that readers who are not willing to work will find helpful. But despite his overall reserve, Mansfield is surprisingly candid on a few points of extreme importance. My own impression is that his method is to state baldly a handful of broad but essential points, and then elusivley wade through a host of details the understanding of which allows us to fill in the gaps between the broad points. One example will suffice. You don't need to be well versed in military affairs to realize that practically none of Machiavelli's arguments in Book II of the Discourses makes any sense. Mansfield helps us resolve this difficulty, right at the outset of his treatment of that Book, by plainly stating that Book II is an argument not about physical warfare but about spiritual warfare. It is in fact a long, sustained metaphor in which certain topics and terms serve as stand-ins for Machiavelli's real subjects. Then, having drawn the curtain completely open, just for a second, Mansfield lets it close, and proceeds to his line-by-line discussion of Book II--but only after he has let us know what is really going on, thereby giving us the tools to understand for ourselves what will be discussed in this all-important section. I wish also to note that Mansfield is a masterful writer, and that few books--and almost no scholarly books--can claim to be this well done. He is also a very funny man. Machiavelli is lucky to have found a commentator who not only appreciates his sublte jokes but contributes some delightful jokes of his own that are worthy of the master. In sum: this book will frustrate you. It will make you sweat and curse and fume. But it rewards the patient.
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