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Review
"[An] excellent brief study, incorporating much recent research effectively without losing the author's own distinctive viewpoint. Lucidly written. A fine contribution."--Marcia L. Colish, Oberlin College
"An exceptionally lucid biographical sketch and analysis of Machiavelli's ideology. For beginning students of this subject, I have never found anything better."--James E. McGoldrick, Cedarville College
"An exceptionally lucid biographical sketch and analysis of Machiavelli's ideology. For beginning students of this subject, I have never found anything better."--James E. McGoldrick, Cedarville College
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Niccolo Machiavelli taught that political leaders must be prepared to do evil that good may come of it, and his name has been a byword ever since for duplicity and immorality. Is his sinister reputation deserved? In answering this question Quentin Skinner focuses on three major works, The Prince, the Discourses, and The History of Florence, and distils from them an introduction to Machiavelli's doctrines of exemplary clarity.
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Machiavelli died nearly 500 years ago, but his name lives on as a byword for cunning, duplicity, and the exercise of bad faith in political affairs. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Machiavelli died nearly 500 years ago, but his name lives on as a byword for cunning, duplicity, and the exercise of bad faith in political affairs. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Machiavelli inspires a never-ending stream of academic studies and biographies which violently disagree with one another. But it will be a brave author who will disagree with Quentin Skinner, who says more of interest in this small book than dozens of his predecessors combined. If you read this, along with Isaiah Berlin's essay on "The Originality of Machiavelli" and Sebastian de Grazia's biography, you can save yourself a decade or so of leafing through the chaff.
It's really amazing how Skinner writes on his subject with such precision given the difficulty others have had in pinning Machiavelli down. He has a genuine gift for explaining arcane academic principles in a simple, clear and interesting way. This doesn't mean that he evades the more doubtful issues and ambiguities regarding Machiavelli - he just has great judgement in spotting which are important and which are meaningless wrangles. I like reading this book almost as much as I like reading Machiavelli.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I suppose there is a certain irony in reading Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction, for in doing so you indulge in the machiavellian trait that the means justify the end (or as Niccolo himself more eloquently puts it "though the deed accuses him, the results excuse him"). Ramming the history, context, treatise and fundamentals of Machiavellian philosophy into 100 pages is no mean feat. Notwithstanding the small writing.
After 100 pages of squinting you feel altogether more erudite, possibly confident enough to pub-challenge the use of the adjective 'machiavellian' as an inappropriate representation of the man's philosophy. You could lecture ad nauseam that Machiavelli preached, not that you should be duplicitous for the sake of duplicity, or immoral for the sake of immorality, but only as sensible strategies should the circumstances dictate. One in the eye for Cicero, Livy and his humanist pals. Seems pretty obvious to us rational, philisophically enlightened, media-educated children of Darwin. But to have said so to Machiavelli would probably have been an anachronism.
Power to Niccolo, the man spoke sense. Power to Mr Skinner, a virtuoso perfomance.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Knowing Machiavelli only by reputation and starting a course of Renaissance study I found the amount of material available by and about him rather overwhelming. Having had great experiences with the OUP Very Short Introduction To series before I made this my starting point.
Skinner does a great job of condensing a significant amount of material into readily understandable, bite sized chunks. He focuses on three areas of his life, the writing of The Prince, the Discourses and his work as a Florentine historian. He attempts to understand the driving force of the man and his motivation in writing, particularly in relation to the key idea of virtus, which Machiavelli sees as a key quality in a leader, a successful state and a successful country.
I now feel prepared to tackle Machiavelli's work head on, with a great guide to help me. An excellent resource.
Skinner does a great job of condensing a significant amount of material into readily understandable, bite sized chunks. He focuses on three areas of his life, the writing of The Prince, the Discourses and his work as a Florentine historian. He attempts to understand the driving force of the man and his motivation in writing, particularly in relation to the key idea of virtus, which Machiavelli sees as a key quality in a leader, a successful state and a successful country.
I now feel prepared to tackle Machiavelli's work head on, with a great guide to help me. An excellent resource.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A useful introduction, though dense and lacking in structure
The Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press has a good reputation for presenting challenging subjects in an easily accessible manner. Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2008 by The Wanderer
Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction Reviewed
Skinner’s contribution to the “Very Short Introduction” series of Oxford University Press serves the purpose for which the series is dedicated. Read more
Published on 20 Nov 2003 by John Francis Fitzgerald
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