Machiavelli
Philosopher of Power
“A riveting and exhilarating read.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli’s handbook on power—how to get it and how to keep it—has been enormously influential in the centuries since it was written. Its author, born to an established middle-class family, was no prince himself. Machiavelli worked as a courtier and diplomat for the Republic of Florence, and enjoyed some small fame in his time as the author of bawdy plays and poems. Upon the Medici’s return to power, however, he found himself summarily dismissed from the government he had served for decades and exiled from the city where he was born.
In this discerning new biography, Ross King rescues Machiavelli’s legacy from caricature, detailing the vibrant political and social context that influenced his thought and underscoring the humanity of one of history’s finest political thinkers.
“A convincing portrait of one of the most misunderstood thinker of our time. . . . everything a short biography should be and more.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A scholarly examination of hot-blooded political intrigue to rival all those potboilers on the fiction lists.” —The Gazette (Montreal)