John Grace attended the University of Toronto, the University of Chicago, and Kenyon College, where he focused on the study of political philosophy and English literature. He studies how the works of Niccolo Machiavelli profoundly affected all manner of philosophic thinking in 17th century Europe, and how this new Machiavellian spirit in philosophy originally shaped - and continues to inform - the principles and practices of our modern, liberal-democratic way of life. He also studies the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, considering especially Nietzsche's radical and critical assessment of both Machiavellian philosophy and its real-world consequences. And finally, he explores the relationship between philosophy and poetry in the dramas of William Shakespeare.