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Summary: The Prince
Review: Niccolo Machiavelli talks about how a prince should be, because the prince was a very soft person. He is telling the prince how a real prince should be. He talks about political power. He asked that would you like to be feared or loved, it was directed to the prince. He says it is better to be feared because so no one will turn their back on you.
He talks about his life a little bit. This book was for Lorenzo De Medici. It says that he didn't like the Prince, that was why he wrote it. It tells how to gain power over everbody. It even says how to get away with murder without getting caught.
Machiavelli makes a lot of argument's in the book becuase so he could prove why a prince has to be in his way of thought. It goes over that Machiavelli was hated. He tells how to control his power and to be feared. He says that a prince should try to do things to be overthrown in the book The Prince. The book tells the same rules on how to be powerful, because the rules still apply in this time of year.
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Summary: Absolutely worth reading!!!
Review: Machiavelli's "The Prince" is known all over the world for teaching effective tactics for the absolute ruler.
Machiavelli was a citizen of Florence, a city that became very wealthy in the 15th century. In this age it became a centre of humanism and the new, classical style in education and scholarship. However, Italy was a scene of intense political conflict and in the 15th century Florence also experienced a changeful time of wars and different rulers, most important of them the Medici.
When the Medici family regained power in 1512 after a short interrupt, Machiavelli was tortured and removed from public life. For the next 10 years he concentrated on writing history, political philosophy, and even plays. He ultimately was called back to public duty for the last two years of his life.
Machiavelli offers advice in order to retain power. "The Prince" describes the means by which political power is seized and retained, and the circumstances in which it is lost. It is different from other books about creating and controlling principalities because it doesn't tell you what an ideal prince or principality is but explains through examples, which princes are the most successful in obtaining and maintaining power. Machiavelli draws his examples from personal observations he made.
Now in which way is this book also interesting for modern life?
Today "Machiavellian" means using power and violence imprudently. But although many people may say that this book is an instruction that rulers must be prepared to lie, cheat and steal to hang on to their thrones, in my opinion "The Prince" is an astonishingly honest book. Machiavelli wants to persuade the ruler that he could best preserve his power by the careful use of violence, by respecting private property and the traditions of his subjects, and by promoting material prosperity. What is most important is to keep the control of one's subjects and kingdom, be it in a "good" or "evil" way. In some respects "The Prince" is even revolutionary: Machiavelli says that a country cannot be governed by a set of moral or religious principles. If you keep faith in a Christian way and want your subjects to love you instead of fearing you, you will be second.
So this Book shows a picture of the true nature of power, which has not changed over the centuries. It offers a means to analyse the way of thinking of powerful people and of qualities needed to keep in power.
Machiavelli seems to me very modern even in political questions: although he writes for a monarch, he preaches the free life of citizens and a kind of free market-economy. He recommends to award those who are successful and therefore enhance the prosperity of the prince's empire.
A very important argument for a strong ruler is that otherwise there would be chaos and anarchy, in other words the real nature of people would emerge. The ruler must keep law and order, but must not harm his people in a disproportional way. This is what also a successful businessman in my opinion.
The Penguin-Classics-edition of this book is especially interesting because the introduction, which gives an insight into the political and social situation in the 15th century. This is very useful for understanding the content of the book because of the wealth of historical examples Machiavelli gives.
However, you have to be cautious applying the principles tought in "The Prince" uncritically. Sometimes they are too simple to be useful without analysing the particular circumstances diligently.
I think that everyone that reads this book will benefit from it. It is written in a short and simple stile, even if the 15th-century language sounds sometimes a bit strange to us.
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Summary: A scientific analysis of politics by a Realpolitiker
Review: I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 for the applicability of Machiavelli's principles to today's world. I'm sure that his experiences in medieval Italian politics and his observations were cutting edge at the time, but many contemporary readers will be unable to apply his timeless observations to modern life.From an historical standpoint, this is a how-to manual for an Italian prince to unify the factuous Italian principalities. Machiavelli was an Italian patriot, who observed how outside powers could do anything they wanted in Italy, and how they needed a 'strongman' to unify the feuding factions and bring Italy to its rightful place as THE major European power. He uses many examples from history and his life in Italian courts to systematically indentify different kinds of states(principalities), how they are governed and what their respective strengths and weaknesses are. He also explains tactics for imperialism, for example, how best to rule conquered states. He also gives advice to princes, on how to rule effectively. He frequently cites Duke Valentino as an excellent example of a prince(nowadays a political leader) who almost unified northern Italy. Many of the examples Machiavelli uses are from Roman or medieval times, but I found them still applicable to many situations in modern life. His disdain for mercenary troops boils down to, if you want something done right, do it yourself. He observed during his time, that mercenary troops talked tough in peace, but during actual battles, they often proved unreliable, so he advocated using one's own forces in battles. He also advocated that avoiding battles are bad if it weakens one's tactical position. If avoiding battles allows the enemy to strengthen himself, it is best to engage in it now, so long as you are assured of winning. This minimizes your loses in the future. He is also smart enough to realize that it takes intelligence and foresight from the prince, to determine these scenarios, and ultimately the state is run only as effectively as the Prince is intelligent. He also intelligently attributes good government from intelligent and perceptive Princes, as they are able to discern good advice from bad. There are also a couple maxims which come through the book: mimic success, allow advisors to speak freely in private, rely on yourself only, don't get invovled in alliances or operations where you end up comparatively weak, and don't build up enemies. Any person with ability to apply old examples to modern life will reap many benefits from this book. If you are the type of person who finds anything written before you were born 'weird' or 'stupid', don't get it.
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Summary: the root of modern polity
Review: if anyone doesnt like the way modern politics works, you can put the blame right at Miachiavelli's feet. his "real world" view of politics changed the way princes related to each other in Europe and then later, in the world. thankfully we have improved on his views somewhat, but he began it all with his short book.
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Summary: How to Take Over the World in Only a Few Hours
Review: This is a must-read classic for anyone interested in history, business, politics or meglomania. It has inspired many of history's most powerful leaders (several of which, it has been said, slept with this book under their pillow) and with good reason. Despite it's age, Machiavelli's arguments and strategies can easily be adopted for use in today's world. Not to mention all the insight it provides for those who question history.
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Summary: Here's your quintessential "What Would Machiavelli Do?" book
Review: I just had an interesting discussion with a young man who was convinced that Machiavelli was evil. I found out he'd never even tried to read "The Prince", which is the quintessential guide to Machiavelli's political mind. This young man's preconception is a very common one, alas. In this book, presented in short chapters, one finds a guidebook to taking power and ruling a small country. Nowhere does it suggest using excessive force, nor does it suggest gratuitous violence. It is straightforward and pragmatic. Machiavelli suggests keeping one's goal, political power, in mind all the time, and is not afraid to discuss unpleasant ways of getting and keeping that power. It is the essence of ruthlessness, but what politician doesn't do this every day? In every competitive, demanding occupation, participants must keep goals in mind constantly and work completely toward those goals. Machiavelli was just one of the first to codify how to do it. And codify he does -- the book is filled with suggestions on how to handle everything from whether to hire mercenary troops to how to make the commoners love you. Though Machiavelli's writing is somewhat archaic and definitely rich in idea density, it is worth the read. I think everybody, from students to politicos to housekeepers to entrepreneurs, would benefit from the information contained herein. I do suggest getting a decent grounding in Italian history before the attempt.
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Summary: This book is a must-read
Review: If you're reading this review, I'll assume you've come to realize how important this book is. Controversial, definitely, but worth reading. This particular edition is really nice. I haven't seen a book this cheap in a long time. For those who don't know, "The Prince" is a manuscipt written by Machiavelli to the Medici (I think) family in some province of Italy. It outlines the ways in which a ruler can maintain power by analyzing the actions of past rulers. It's short enough to keep you interested, and important enough to warrant buying this book. Although the stated scope of the book (how rulers can maintain their position) is relatively narrow, the lessons of the book apply to a wide variety of situations. From business to politics, this book contains many of the essential lessons to succeed with power. While nobody should expect to learn how to stay in power after reading this book (this, of course, requires a great deal of experience), one can reasonably expect a good deal of insight into the way people think. My *single* complaint about the book is that it is sometimes too dense to read casually. While not classifiable as an "intense" read, it falls somewhere between a historical textbook and an instruction manual.
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Summary: Timeless philosophy and ageless wisdom.
Review: The Prince offers insight into more than just politics. Read the text over and over until you understand the concepts. They are applicable to all sorts of situations.
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Summary: The eternally misunderstood 16th century realpolitik guide
Review: Before Kissinger, there was Niccolo Machiavelli, a minor Florentine bureaucrat who was rotting in jail and being brutally tortured when his previous political benefactors lost power to the returning Medicis. The Medicis had thrown Niccolo in prison the year he wrote "The Prince", but his observations and opinions on the rule of kingdoms had been formed far earlier. These experiences provide the bulk of Machiavelli's proofs on the theories he would present later in "The Prince". As an envoy to the court of the ruthless Cesare Borgia (the duke of Valencia, Spain), for the French king in 1502, Machiavelli had a front row center seat to view the political intruiges that culminated in Borgia's murder, and Machiavelli's return to Florence. By this time (1503), Machiavelli felt he had gained revelatory insights into the nature of attaining and more importantly, maintaining power in the maddening turmoil and internecnine wars that defined the largely unaffiliated European papal states, and the structures of the monarchies and principalities of the day. In fact, the first eleven chapters merely describe, rather matter-of-factly, the structure of the kingdoms and princely city-states without even getting into the discussion of the rulers themselves. After a few more chapters defining the role of the military and examining the different types of armies employed in his day, the book reaches the chapters for which it has become unjustly infamous: Machiavelli's treatise on effective leadership. The advice is largely pragmatic. A prince should avoid bald faced flatters. On the question of whether it is better to be feared than loved, Macchiavelli's advice is merely to avoid being hated. Machiavelli's advice seems shockingly amoral to modern readers. In fact, he is downright dogmatic about treating the entire enterprise of governance as objectively as he sees fit, complete with his somewhat oversimplistic and overly-pragmatic (in his mind) counterbalanced traits that are the hallmark of an effective ruler. Machiavelli writes: "And again, [the prince] need not make himself uneasy at incurring a reproach for those vices without which the state can only be saved with difficulty, for if everything is considered carefully, it will be found that something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity." When read without the benefit of historical context, or indeed, the context of the rest of "The Prince", it seems that Machiavelli encourages the pursuit of vice and cruelty as a tool of effective leadership. However, we must remember that "The Prince" was written with a concrete aim - to give the Medicis a blueprint for their rule, and an unashamed exhortation for their conquest of Italy, in the hopes that they would expel the foreign "barbarians" and unite Italy into a single kingdom. "This opportunity", he wrote, "therefore, ought not to be allowed to pass for letting Italy at last see her liberator appear". Sadly for Niccolo, the Medicis ignored "The Prince", as did most of the rest of the world for for the bulk of the following centuries. It's far too easy to read "The Prince" as a training manual for tyrants. Indeed, the infamous Haitian dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier *did* use "The Prince" in just this way. However, Machiavelli's very name has come to stand for something that he himself did not necessarily represent. There are many reviews of this book salaciously promising that "The Prince" is 'the ultimate in evil'. This unfortunate image has also launched a hundred hip hop variations on his rather unhip medieval name (how long will it be before a rapper names himself "Kissengah", one wonders?), which is also entirely undeserved. The lessons Machiavelli wished to teach the unresponsive Medicis must be divorced from modern sensibilities before the modern reader can draw lessons and conclusions about his intent, for the nature of government as we know it today bears far fewer similarities to the rulers of the kingdoms in Machiavelli's time and place. Rather, "The Prince" is the study of the natures of political power and the state themselves, and the book deserves to be understood as it is before his (somewhat disjointed) opinions presented in the book are analyzed for malice. Macchiavelli, like Sun Tzu, had finally collected a working knowledge of war and power into one handy tome, and virtually reinvented the discipline of political science singlehandedly.
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Summary: BRILLIANT, MISUNDERSTOOD TREATISE ON LEADERSHIP
Review: This has to be one of the most innovative books ever written on leadership. Not only did The Prince turn the idea of being a leader on its head (most books up until this one focused on the virtues it took to be a prince), but it is also surprisingly comprehensive (Machiavelli touches on many subjects in just 80 pages), and restrained (Machiavelli says more than once that violence should only be used when there is no alternative). The danger comes in misinterpreting Machiavelli: using violence as a first and not a last alternative; and betraying people for no good reason, thinking it will not come back to haunt you. Most of the issues in this book are still relevant today. After reading this book, you should be armed with what a lot of books take hundreds of pages to explain: why it's important to take bold stances; why a prince must embark on great undertakings; and why developing your decision making and judgement are the only ways to be a wise leader.
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