Machiavelli's highly influential treatise on political power

The Prince shocked Europe on publication with its advocacy of ruthless tactics for gaining absolute power and its abandonment of conventional morality. Niccolo Machiavelli drew on his own experience of office under the turbulent Florentine republic, rejecting traditional values of political theory and recognizing the complicated, transient nature of political life. Concerned not with lofty ideal but with a regime that would last, The Prince has become the bible of realpolitik, and it still retains its power to alarm and...

Rejecting the traditional values of political theory, Machiavelli drew upon his own experiences of office in the turbulent Florentine republic to write his celebrated treatise on statecraft. While Machiavelli was only one of the many Florentine "prophets of force," he differed from the ruling elite in recognizing the complexity and fluidity of political life.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves--and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted....

Machiavelli's 16th-century comedic classic. Callimaco wishes to bed Lucrezia, though she is the wife of the aging Nicia. Consequently trickery and deceit are in order if Callimaco is to obtain his desire. A plan is hatched involving a plant, the "mandragola," with supposedly magical powers. Nicia is fooled, but will Lucrezia prove as gullible? "So you don't think Machiavelli had a sense of humor? Then go see the rollicking production of his comedy MANDRAGOLA at the Shakespeare Theater ... MANDRAGOLA, adapted by Peter Maloney, is filled not only with Machiavelli's rather questionable wisdom,...

Christopher Lynch offers a substantial interpretive essay alongside Machiavelli's text that covers its historical and political contexts. He also discusses the military, political, and philosophical aspects of the work, as well as maps, an index of names, and a glossary.

This collection of the most brilliant and characteristic letters of Niccolo Machiavelli displays the vital and penetrating mind of the man who wrote the first work of modern political science. These letters, which reveal Machiavelli's critical intelligence, sense of humor, and elegant sense, are our chief source of information about his personal life. As such, they will serve as a vivid introduction to the personalities and events of the most turbulent period of the Renaissance, and they will also enlighten people who have been fascinated by the political thinker who wrote" The Prince" and...

Voltaire said, "Machiavelli taught Europe the art of war; it had long been practiced, without being known." For Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), war was war, and victory the supreme aim to which all other considerations must be subordinated. The Art of War is far from an anachronism--its pages outline fundamental questions that theorists of war continue to examine today, making it essential reading for any student of military history, strategy, or theory. Machiavelli believed The Art of War to be his most important work.

First published in 1950, this translation by the late Leslie J. Walker provides an English language version of this seminal work in political theory. In his introduction, Father Walker explains under what conditions Machiavelli came to formulate his theory and examines the postulates upon which Machiavelli's new method was based, analyzing both the writings concerned with virtu and the conflict between morality and political interest.

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince . . . a king . . . a president. When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. In The Prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast, fox and lion. Today, this small sixteenth-century...

The description for this book, Florentine Histories, will be forthcoming.

No text has attracted more controversy over the centuries than Machiavelli's The Prince. Placed on the Index of Prohibited Books by the Catholic Church in 1599, The Prince nevertheless proved to be the means by which Machiavelli came to be known throughout Europe, establishing his name as a byword for the cunning and unscrupulous politician. Written as the medieval world was giving way to the new dynamic of renaissance capitalism, The Prince embodies a whole series of vital issues that affect our understanding of modern politics, including power and morality, history and human nature,...