I’d been meaning to read The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli based on the reputation of the book alone. People up to no good are said to be Machiavellian and manipulative. I expected a treatise on how to manipulate people on an individual level. It is a much broader book than that.
The Prince is a guidebook for new rulers, or Princes, instructing them on the best way to rule over a populace. It’s a book on good governance with interesting bits of wisdom here and there. And, it’s a difficult read because the text calls on events that were current at the time it was written in 1513. The Prince also features a translation straight from antiquity.
Consider this little bit about building fortresses…
"So that, on the whole, the best fortress you can have, is in not being hated by your subjects. If they hate you no fortress will save you; for when once the people take up arms, foreigners are never wanting to assist them."
That’s a bit of wisdom. It is immediately followed by this passage…
"Within our own time it does not appear that fortresses have been of service to any Prince, unless to the Countess of Forlì after her husband Count Girolamo was murdered; for by this means she was able to escape the first onset of the insurgents, and awaiting succour from Milan, to recover her State; the circumstances of the times not allowing any foreigner to lend assistance to the people. But afterwards, when she was attacked by Cesare Borgia, and the people, out of hostility to her, took part with the invader, her fortresses were of little avail. So that, both on this and on the former occasion, it would have been safer for her to have had no fortresses, than to have had her subjects for enemies.
All which considerations taken into account, I shall applaud him who builds fortresses, and him who does not; but I shall blame him who, trusting in them, reckons it a light thing to be held in hatred by his people."
There are chapters on how to deal with flatterers and how to treat Ministers. The text concludes with Machiavelli encouraging a leader to use the lessons of the book and to step forward to rid Italian soil of barbarians.
Machiavelli advises the need for realism and talks of the influence of Fortune, for good and bad. The Prince an interesting read with applications to the modern age, but to get to the meat of the advice, you get a big dose of the politics of the ancient world.
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From the Publisher
The father of modern political theory, Machiavelli proposed that theological imperatives have no place in the political arena — a revolutionary concept for 16th-century Italy.
“The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”
”Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”
“He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command”
Classic guide to acquiring and maintaining political power is refreshing in its directness, yet often disturbing in its cold practicality.
Starkly relevant to the political upheavals of the 20th century.
This calculating prescription for power remains today, nearly 500 years after it was written, a timely and startling lesson in the practice of autocratic rule.
Reviews with images
Good read
This is a good read for a college student and for anyone else interested in that time period. There has never been anything that resembles the way Machiavelli thought about society and is still used today.
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Amazon Customer
The Prince and relevance to today.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2015