With the publication of posthumous writings of Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, it has become evident that he engaged with the writings of Niccoló Machiavelli in a more sustained fashion than had previously been supposed, notwithstanding the fragmentary and unfinished nature of some of these writings. Lahtinen (political science, U. of Tampere, Finland) argues that these writings, which interpret Machiavelli as the theoretician of political conjuncture, contain noteworthy contributions to Machiavelli scholarship and to political theory and philosophy in general. In his reading, Althusser's Machiavelli stressed the analysis of the particular characteristics of each political conjuncture at any given time, placed the perspective of the "people" or the "many" as the criteria for the evaluation of the actions of The Prince, outlined the aleatory (chance-like) nature of political dynamics, and politicized morality (rather than separated politics from morals), all of which together provide important contributions to a materialist theory of politics. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)