Prince (Machiavelli - Oxford ed.)

Author: Niccolo Machiavelli

ISBN: 9780199535699

Binding: paperback

Section: Philosophy/Rhetoric/Logic

When Machiavelli's brief treatise on Renaissance statecraft and princely power was posthumously published in 1532, it generated a debate that has raged unabated until the present day. Based upon Machiavelli's first-hand experience as an emissary of the Florentine Republic to the courts of Europe, The Prince analyses the usually violent means by which men may seize, retain, and lose political power. Machiavelli added a dimension of incisive realism to one of the major philosophical and political issues of his time, especially the relationship between public deeds and private morality. His book provides a remarkably uncompromising picture of the nature of power, no matter in what era or by whom it is exercised.