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The Prince

By Niccolò Machiavelli

(132)

| Board Book | No ISBN

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Book Description

Ever since their publication nearly 500 years ago, Machiavelli's writings have been a scandal. The Jesuits called him 'the devil's partner in crime', Elizabethan dramatists turned his name into 'Make Evil' and Bertrand Russell thought The Prince a 'handbook for gangsters'. Yet to read Machiavelli isContinue

Ever since their publication nearly 500 years ago, Machiavelli's writings have been a scandal. The Jesuits called him 'the devil's partner in crime', Elizabethan dramatists turned his name into 'Make Evil' and Bertrand Russell thought The Prince a 'handbook for gangsters'. Yet to read Machiavelli is also to take a breath of fresh air, for he exposes realities normally sugared over with rhetoric. The scandal lies in the fact that Machiavelli himself is not scandalised by the bitter truth he tells.

Machiavelli stripped away sentimentality from words like honour, generosity and love - if they did not hold onto power, they were worthless. Living during the death-throes of the Florentine Republic, Machiavelli himself was tortured by the Medici for his Republican sympathies. For some, this suggests The Prince should be read, not as a pattern card for tyrants, but as an exposé, stripping away the velvet glove of spin to reveal the iron fist beneath.

Machiavelli's ideas remain at the heart of political controversy today. Do the ends justify the means? Should the welfare of the majority permit the persecution of a few? Such questions are not only relevant, but essential, to our political decisions. Few writers have presented them with such clear-eyed understanding or such biting prose as Machiavelli.

6 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    A manual

    The Prince is a manual. It tells the ambitious leader how to gain maintain and centralize power. Once this power is established there is nothing in Machiavelli's view to prevent from developing just and free institutions. What is involved here, of course, is the whole question of means and ends, and ... (continue)

    The Prince is a manual. It tells the ambitious leader how to gain maintain and centralize power. Once this power is established there is nothing in Machiavelli's view to prevent from developing just and free institutions. What is involved here, of course, is the whole question of means and ends, and Machiavelli does not resolve the problem. And one could say that the politics of European nationalisms have been guided by this icy, terrifyingly intelligent book of instruction, well worth reading.

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    Antonio Gallo said on Nov 12, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Intelligent, easy to read and comprising ideas which make really common sense, the father of realpolitik is a must read, as the strategies can even be applied at the workplace!

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    shazzpezzazz said on Dec 2, 2006 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • My favourite part about this book is how Machiavelli takes a practical approach; talking about things as they really are rather than an ideal. This idealization of a prince I've read, is how the subject was handled before Machiavelli.

    I'm not saying that I condone evil actions by a prince, only tha ... (continue)

    My favourite part about this book is how Machiavelli takes a practical approach; talking about things as they really are rather than an ideal. This idealization of a prince I've read, is how the subject was handled before Machiavelli.

    I'm not saying that I condone evil actions by a prince, only that Machiavelli describes what based on the evidence he believes is effective and not effective, whether or not that is labelled evil or good.

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    audioreader said on May 22, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Happy I read it because I think it is an important part of history but found it a bit tedious!!!

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    Shelly Mae said on Jul 30, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • simply put, since I know no Italian, this is the most readable version of the Prince I could ever find, with a reasonable price, too.

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    ikjeng said on Sep 8, 2007 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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