The Prince

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor, The Prince is 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. The prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values. Through the years, The Prince has been misunderstood to the extent that Machiavelli's name has become synonymous with unscrupulous political behavior. However, it remains essential reading as the ultimate book on power politics. In it Machiavelli analyzes the usually violent means by which men seize, retain, and lose political power. The Prince provides a remarkably uncompromising picture of the true nature of power, no matter who controls it or in what era.Included are selections from Machiavelli's Discourses upon the First Ten Books of Titus Livy.

About the Author :
Considered one of the great early political analysts, Niccolò Machiavelli is a historical figure in the turning point from the Middle Ages to the Modern World. He was born in Florence, Italy, on May 3, 1469. He was the second son of Bernardo di Niccolo Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute, and of Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility. In Machiavelli's youth, Florence was a great Italian power under the leadership of Lorenzo de' Medici, Il Magnifico. In 1494, the downfall of the Medici and the establishment of a free republican government gave Machiavelli his entrance into politics. After four years in a minor post, he rose to chancellor and secretary to the Second Chancery, the commission that oversaw military matters and foreign affairs. However, the republic collapsed in 1512, and the Medici returned to power. Although Machiavelli vainly hoped to serve the new rulers, he was dismissed from his post. Shortly thereafter, having been accused of involvement in a conspiracy against the Medici, he was imprisoned and tortured before being released. For the next eight years, Machiavelli lived quietly at his small property in San Casciano, near Florence, and he devoted himself to literature. Here he wrote The Prince, his most famous work, which, ironically, he dedicated to the very man who had ordered his imprisonment in hopes of regaining his lost office. Gradually, his literary fame grew, and he returned to Florence in 1520, where he became involved in the attempt to reform the city's constitution. This was the height of Machiavelli's literary activity and increasing influence. Coincidentally, he died within a few weeks of the second expulsion of the Medici in 1527, at the age of 58. John Lescault, a native of Massachusetts, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He lives in Washington, DC, where he works in theater.

Review :
"[Machiavelli] can still engage our attention with remarkable immediacy, and this cannot be explained solely by the appeal of his ironic observations on human behavior. Perhaps the most important thing is the way he can compel us to reflect on our own priorities and the reasoning behind them; it is this intrusion into our own defenses that makes reading him an intriguing experience." -- "Dominic Baker-Smith" "[Machiavelli] demands to be read--plainly and boldly, but also cautiously." -- "Sixteenth Century Journal" "There is something stimulating in Machiavelli's forthrightness. Reading him, we are brought face to face, as nowhere else so vividly, with a question that few philosophers had dared to discuss: is statesmanship bound by morality?" -- "Will Durant, author of The Story of Civilization"