The Prince (Enriched Classic) - Dark Publications

Location: Home » body art - tattoo » Contemporary » The Prince (Enriched Classic)

Similar Items:

•	The Art Of War
•	The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)
•	The Prince (Cliffs Notes)
•	Politics (Dover Thrift Editions)
•	The Art of War (Shambhala classics)

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED

BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives readers important background information

• A chronology of the author's life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.

SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Old Nick, Or the Satanic Proverbs of Power October 21, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

This short slender work marks a landmark in Western Civilization and made the name of the author a synonym for Satan. In 26 short, crisp essays, Niccolo Machiavelli lays out the precepts whereby a nation may be subjugated to the will of a leader, whether prince, dicator or president. Machiavelli was born in 1469 and served the republic city-state of Florence as a high-level diplomat and minister of miliatary affairs for 13 years, undertaking at least 24 crucial foreign missions. When the Medici returned to power, Machiavelli was exiled from the city and he turned his mind to authoring a massive treatise titled THE REPUBLIC. Out of that larger work, these short essays were condensed. Machiavelli had one goal in so creating THE PRINCE; he desired the unification of Italy.

However, he authored the first and one of the best works of political science ever penned.

Unlike previous works of political thought, THE PRINCE is not philosophical in nature. The author is focused on the obtaining and the maintaining of power. "Morality" is not the intent. See chapter 15:

"A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good. Therefore it is necessary for a prince...to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case."

Or chapter 18: "Thus it well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere, religious and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it is needful to be otherwise you may be able to to change to the opposite qualities."

The language of this is quaint and a little stilted. It stems from the translation done by Luigi Ricci in 1903, now in the public domain. Various revisions have been done on this basic translation and there are newer and fresher translations, each with their own merits and each costing a little more. Machiavelli backs up his proverbs with allusions to classical history and to events contemporary to his own time, but while the examples he cites are dated and obscure the thoughtful reader will easily be able to see these principles working in our modern era.

For example, Machiavelli argues in Chapter 17, that while fear and love are both powerful motivations for men to support a leader, love comes from the people and the leader can not control it. It is easier to inspire fear. An American reading this argument some 470 years later can reflect on how the political opponents of George W. Bush were vilified by political smear campaigns, how the wife of a policy critic can be exposed as a CIA agent to the risk of other's lives and how a decorated war hero can be "Swiftboated".

I recommend this edition because it is cheap. The formality of the language seems appropriate and simple statements are expressed with simple grace: "The first impression that one gets of a ruler and of his brains is from seeing the men that he has about him." (Chapter 22) However, shop around and if a fresher translation takes your fancy, do not hesitate. THE PRINCE will do more to explain the conduct of those in power and enable you to judge them, better than any number of television ads. It should be required reading in any political season.

5 out of 5 stars

A guide to gaining and maintaining power March 27, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book was written by the famous Italian statesman Niccolo Machiavelli in 1531. This book is a classic and I was pleasantly surprised that the content was not dated and the principles translate easily into the modern worlds of business and politics.
The author wrote this book as an instruction guide for governing princes in the 1500's when Italy was divided into city states and were being defeated by many foreign powers. I belive that the work is directed to Lorenzo de Medici by a letter included in the work and because at the end of the writing Machiavelli calls for a prince to unite and lead Italy against its oppressors.
The book is not unethical as I had imagined from my understanding of the ruthlessness of Machiavellian ethics. The author is only explaining tactics to use to maintain power in a kingdom or city state that are pragmatic for his time period.
Here are some examples from the book:
1. When conquering a territory keep the current laws and institutions in place, but eliminate all the family of the defeated prince.
2. When trouble is sensed ahead of time it can be easily remedied, if you wait for it to show itself, it is to late.
3. Whoever is responsible for another becoming powerful, ruins himself.
4. There is no surer way of keeping possesion than by devastation.
5. Men do you are harm either because they hate you or they fear you.
6. Violence must be inflicted once and for all, it must be over quickly.
7. Build your power through the people.
8. Power is maintained through religious institutions.
9. Neglect the art of war and you lose your state.
10. If you act virtuously, you will be undone by those who are not, make use of this or not according to need.
The above is just a small sampling of the lessons in this book. My review can not do this book justice, it is full of wisdom and life lessons. It is a guide book for business leaders and politicians. I strongly suggest adding this book to your home library and referring to it often.

4 out of 5 stars

Simply Machiavellian July 31, 2008

I don't think this is a 'must read', but it was pretty entertaining if you're into philosophy, history or like to find out where words come from. You always hear people say, things like "his politics are machiavellian" and you know it means 'cut-throat', but you don't know why. Well reading this clears it up, although I didn't get the impression that he favored such tactics, it just happened that sometimes those tactics work for maintaining power and this is what this book is all about. Getting, keeping and expanding your power, specifically over principalities, but you can apply some things to business I'm sure.

It's an easy read (which surprised me) and not very lengthy, so don't be intimated by it if you're interested in reading it.

4 out of 5 stars

The Prince is still relavent today December 5, 2008
The Prince is more of a guideline handbook than a novel. It is well written and simple to understand. It teaches a lot about power and politics. Although it was written centuries ago, there are still traces of Machiavelli tactics still being used today. Things about Hereditary principalities, Ecclesiastical principalities, mixed principalities and new principalities are irreverent now, but there are some things that are still possible. It is known that many modern leaders were readers of The Prince as well as The Art of War. Fidel Castro, Sadaam Hussein and Kim Jong-Il. It is also obvious in this George W. Bush administration. Karl Rove former Deputy Chief of Staff to George W. Bush is an admitted fan of this book although he denies being a follower of Machiavelli's political tactics. The war in Iraq was obviously started by using one of Machiavelli's tactics. Machiavelli says it is okay to trick people into doing what you want by instilling fear. Well, we all remember seeing Colin Powell testify in front of Congress and he even had false evidence of Yellow Cake that was found in Iraq. Well we now know that that was all a lie, but regardless it still worked, because congress voted that we go to war. Majority of the United States public was also in favor of the war because there was a fear. Machiavelli also talks about bombing your own territory so that you can get the public to follow any war decision you make. Many people has said that about

The Prince is an entertain read, and it is the most renowned of these books of how to acquire and retain power, however I do not believe it is as effective as The Art of War. Sun Tzu in my opinion is much better about strategy.

I will definitely recommend this book to anybody who is a political science major or anybody who wishes to get a better understanding of why leaders make many of the decisions today. Its amazing to see how this book was written 500 years ago, and most of it still applies today.

3 out of 5 stars

On Machiavelli's The Prince January 5, 2009
The work is highly recommended to anyone hoping to achieve an understanding of the modern mind and how medieval precepts remain in our collective political unconscious. A work on modern statesmanship, the city-state & the nation state era continues, The Prince's tactics have been co-opted in the name of evil by Communists and others but they are really just an extension of standard goodly practice of his day. Also strict leadership remains a legitimate style under the which love & respect are in a logical balance. This is contrary to the popularity contests which undermine modern Western Statesmanship.

Among his essentials for well executed statesmanship are prioritisation, decisiveness, communication & strength all of which have fallen out of favour in The West today, replaced respectively by welfare, sustainability, propaganda & consensus, which all typify non-leadership. The Machiavellian style emphasizes such common sense principles as the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, a remarkeable deviation from the noblesse oblige of his generaion, and the overarching importance of national unity & security.

His Prince executes his strict care or tough love based on principle and concern without which the government will sufer a loss of faith from its citizenry. Machiavelli proves himself astute in these cases. His work is quite foresightful

My deeper impression is that this volume both beckons for the restoration of Roman era greatness which would be attempted later as well as lays the foundation for what would become the nature of centralism in governance today, sometimes mis-labelled federalism. Certainly he is corect in the challenge between fear, love & loathing in leadership. Look at his ideas as indicatve of traditions from Scripture and the family model as well as monarchy & republic. Study of his ideology can be applied at all levels for effective administration.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic