[ This book] is an exercise in the liberal education that was already threatened when Mr. Mansfield began teaching History of Modern Political Philosophy in the 1960s. You cannot get answers to the questions Mr. Mansfield raises in a textbook or on ChatGPT, or even by examining important passages. The only way to find them is to read, reflect and compare whole books. -- Sam Goldman * Wall Street Journal * Provides a sobering introduction to the philosophical roots of the modern bureaucratic state and its presumptuous claim that all social problems can be solved administratively by highly trained expertsprovocative. -- Glenn Ellmers * New Criterion * Through this narrative of the history of political ideas, Mansfield allows his readers to confront modern political philosophy on its own termsto see a recapitulation of the modern mind[ this book] is far more serious, complicated, and funny than my review can describeWe need great teachers like Harvey Mansfield who understand both great books and political life better than we can. Political philosophy, the study of great books, is not an academic discipline among others, but the record of an inquiry into the fundamental human activity that is manifest always and everywhere. Mansfield opens this inquiry for us all. -- Rachel Mackey * Law & Liberty * The magisterial Harvey Mansfield of Harvard has given us a splendid new bookThe reader will be struckI certainly wasby how refined [ the lectures] are. Well, they are refined because he refined them over half a centuryEvery chapter is penetrating and illuminating. -- Robert P. George * Washington Free Beacon * Mansfield's moderns, especially the early ones, are all devious, therefore dangerous. They always seem to be casting sideways glances; the careful reader's job is to catch them out. Mansfield excels at this, because he is an unfailingly careful reader. Even if one rejects the larger argument, it is always full of penetrating observations. -- Ian Tuttle * Hedgehog Review * Harvey Mansfield is a Harvard treasure, a one-man antidote to liberal complacency. -- Michael J. Sandel Harvey Mansfield is a legendnot to say a myth. These days, of course, a conservative on the political science faculty of an Ivy League college may sound as mythical as the Minotaur. Perhaps [ his] critics viewed him with the same mixture of astonishment and fear as they would the mythical beast. Unfortunately for them, [ he] was all too real. -- Tom Cotton, United States Senator for Arkansas An unblinkingly courageous social commentator, Harvey Mansfield is a superb teacher who has fostered a generation of influential students. -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man 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 US Secretary of Education and author of The Book of Virtues Mansfields latest bookat once artful, instructive, and full of the wisest insights and most memorable aperçusis a perfected version of the lectures on modern political philosophy that Mansfield delivered under the auspices of the Department of Government at Harvard University from 1968 until 2022. -- Daniel J. Mahoney * Law & Liberty * Mansfield makes a convincing case that the development of modern political philosophy follows a coherent order, in turn shaping the course of actual political events. -- David Lewis Schaefer * Law & Liberty *
