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The Prince: The Original Classic (Capstone Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
The Handbook for Leaders
The Prince is often regarded as the first true leadership book. It shocked contemporary readers with its ruthless call for fearless and effective action. With simple prose and straightforward logic, Machiavelli′s guide still has the power to surprise and inform anyone hoping to make their way in the world.
This keepsake edition includes an introduction by Tom Butler–Bowdon, drawing out lessons for managers and business leaders, and showing how The Prince remains vital reading for anyone in the realm of business or politics.
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Other Titles Available in the Classics Series from Capstone
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
The Art of War, Sun Tzu
The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace D. Wattles
The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This new edition of The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, part of the Capstone Original Classic series, is beautifully presented as befits a work of this stature and importance. The pleasing cover design and layout make it an excellent gift. However, Tom Butler-Bowdon's lucid and engaging introduction, to a work he rightly describes as "timeless", is also worth possessing. He provides an excellent and very readable introduction to Machiavelli and his historical context and a laudable survey of his principal ideas. This fine essay is accompanied by a concise bullet-point summary of The Prince's main points, a timeline of the author's life, and details of his other works. Tom helps to set the record straight: Machiavelli was a political pragmatist not a monster. He condemns wanton vice and cruelty and says instead: "It is essential, therefore, for a Prince who desires to maintain his position, to have learned how to be other than good, and to use or not use his goodness as necessity requires." Sometimes force is necessary for the benefit of the state, according to this view, and difficult decisions lie ahead of any new ruler. Apart from being a classical work of political philosophy, The Prince arguably has something to offer the modern reader as a guide to life, in much the same way as Sun Tzu's The Art of War. It paints a picture of the ideal ruler as someone who faces adversity with a tough-minded realism but does so, ultimately, with noble aims. I highly recommend this edition of the "original classic" not only to those with an interest in politics and ethics, therefore, but to those seeking an alternative to the more saccharine forms of contemporary self-help.
Donald Robertson, author of,
The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT): Stoic Philosophy as Rational and Cognitive Psychotherapy
The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid the Father of Hypnotherapy
The Practice of Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy
Donald Robertson, author of,
The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT): Stoic Philosophy as Rational and Cognitive Psychotherapy
The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid the Father of Hypnotherapy
The Practice of Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy
Machiavelli's eternal guide to the psychology of successful leadership and the maintenance of power
19 Dec 2011
Format:Hardcover
This often misquoted and misunderstood guide (generally by those who have never read or studied it) for those who aspire to political or organizational power is still relevant almost 500 years after its original 1532 publication. Machiavelli's name is now undeservedly a synonym for scheming, cynicism and ruthlessness: in fact `The Prince' is the work of a far-sighted and experienced realist which predicts in detail the outcome of any course of action undertaken by a ruler/leader/monarch/president/CEO (i.e. "Prince") who aspires to run any organization/state/conquered territory and clearly explains in plain language the way to succeed and maintain position.
In 26 succinct chapters each with a themed focus, the author outlines the consequences of a range of any would-be leader's actions with an impressive directness and brevity of language, making the book a concise but deep and information-packed `How to do it and avoid mistakes' guide to leadership. On the use of cruelty (despotism/tyranny in modern jargon) for example:
"Cruelty can be called `well-used' if executed at a single stroke out of necessity to secure one's power, and is then not continued but converted into the greatest possible benefit to one's subjects. Badly used cruelty...even if initially limited, increases with time...those who follow the first path can maintain their position ...the others cannot possibly survive" (Ch8)
From musing on generosity (Machiavelli details why it is much better for a political leader in the long-run to be thought mean-minded than generous), to the occasional necessity for war (war should not be delayed or postponed nor aggressors appeased, but ought to be carried out quickly to devastating effect, as to delay will only make the situation worse) and "He who has good arms will always have good friends" (Ch19) virtually every page is replete with often surprisingly counter-intuitive wisdom. The author always backs up his points with contemporary and historical examples perhaps less obvious to the modern-day reader not steeped in classical or mediaeval European history, but the more you re-read and think about what he writes, the more profound and realistic you realise are his insights.
Laying modern-day political correctness to one side, consider Machiavelli's refreshingly frank and deeply poetic insight into how "fortune" (i.e. "luck", "fate", being "in accord with the `Zeitgeist" or whatever you want to call it) should be managed:
"...when fortune changes and men rigidly continue in their ways, they will flourish as long as fortune and their ways are in accord, but they will come to ruin the moment these are in discord...it is better to be impetuous than cautions, because Fortune is a woman, and if you wish to dominate her you must beat and batter her. It is clear that she will let herself be won by men who are impetuous rather than by those who step cautiously. Therefore like a woman, she is more partial to young men, because they are less cautious, wilder and command her with greater audacity" (Ch25)
The text of `The Prince' only extends to around only 90 pages (depending on the translation and page layout) but packs a lot in: what is lacking in quantity is amply compensated by quality and profundity. It's often said that if you don't know `The Prince' and its lessons for power then you're not really politically educated: certainly the principles and insights offered by Machiavelli's text 500 years ago can still be seen to operate on the contemporary political landscape.
In 26 succinct chapters each with a themed focus, the author outlines the consequences of a range of any would-be leader's actions with an impressive directness and brevity of language, making the book a concise but deep and information-packed `How to do it and avoid mistakes' guide to leadership. On the use of cruelty (despotism/tyranny in modern jargon) for example:
"Cruelty can be called `well-used' if executed at a single stroke out of necessity to secure one's power, and is then not continued but converted into the greatest possible benefit to one's subjects. Badly used cruelty...even if initially limited, increases with time...those who follow the first path can maintain their position ...the others cannot possibly survive" (Ch8)
From musing on generosity (Machiavelli details why it is much better for a political leader in the long-run to be thought mean-minded than generous), to the occasional necessity for war (war should not be delayed or postponed nor aggressors appeased, but ought to be carried out quickly to devastating effect, as to delay will only make the situation worse) and "He who has good arms will always have good friends" (Ch19) virtually every page is replete with often surprisingly counter-intuitive wisdom. The author always backs up his points with contemporary and historical examples perhaps less obvious to the modern-day reader not steeped in classical or mediaeval European history, but the more you re-read and think about what he writes, the more profound and realistic you realise are his insights.
Laying modern-day political correctness to one side, consider Machiavelli's refreshingly frank and deeply poetic insight into how "fortune" (i.e. "luck", "fate", being "in accord with the `Zeitgeist" or whatever you want to call it) should be managed:
"...when fortune changes and men rigidly continue in their ways, they will flourish as long as fortune and their ways are in accord, but they will come to ruin the moment these are in discord...it is better to be impetuous than cautions, because Fortune is a woman, and if you wish to dominate her you must beat and batter her. It is clear that she will let herself be won by men who are impetuous rather than by those who step cautiously. Therefore like a woman, she is more partial to young men, because they are less cautious, wilder and command her with greater audacity" (Ch25)
The text of `The Prince' only extends to around only 90 pages (depending on the translation and page layout) but packs a lot in: what is lacking in quantity is amply compensated by quality and profundity. It's often said that if you don't know `The Prince' and its lessons for power then you're not really politically educated: certainly the principles and insights offered by Machiavelli's text 500 years ago can still be seen to operate on the contemporary political landscape.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Binding good, print size good, basic layout. The coloured band around the book is a simple paper slipover, not part of the cover design.
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