“John Lombardini uses original readings of a variety of texts to reconstruct ancient debates about the meaning and significance of Socratic irony, giving us a new way to think about Socrates’ relationship to democracy and about his complex legacy.”—John Zumbrunnen, Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison “Moving beyond Plato’s Socratic dialogues to works by Aristophanes, Xenophon, and Aristotle,  Lombardini’s innovative readings both illuminate the texts and stimulate critical reflection on how humor itself relates to democratic politics.”—Gerald Mara, author of Between Specters of War and Visions of Peace: Dialogic Political Theory and the Challenges of Politics