Machiavelli: On Politics and Power
Machiavelli: On Politics and Power
By Niccolò Machiavelli
Introduction by Jon Lee Anderson
Illustrations by Eko
Restless Classics presents a trenchant new edition of Machiavelli’s most powerful works of political philosophy, including The Prince and selections from Discourses on Livy, introduced by New Yorker writer and biographer of Che Guevara Jon Lee Anderson.
Paperback • ISBN: 9781632062567
Publication date: Mar 23, 2021
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About the Book
Few authors achieve such notoriety that their name becomes an adjective. A "Machiavellian” politician is not simply one who is conniving; the term also refers to a tyrant who is enamored with all the power he (it is usually a “he”) can attain. With so many Machiavellian politicians on the world stage today—Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Mohammed bin Salman, Viktor Orbán, Jair Bolsonaro, et alia—Machiavelli's masterpieces The Prince and Discourses on Livy are at once timely and eternal.
Widely held as a foundational work of modern political philosophy, The Prince can be read as a practical guide for ruling or a satirical guide on how not to rule. Machiavelli prefaces the book with a letter addressed to Lorenzo de’ Medici, the infamous ruler of Florence, both admonishing and praising him for his governance. The sister volume, Discourses on Livy, offers an analysis of ancient Roman history that supports Machiavelli’s claims by lauding the merits of a republic.
As Jon Lee Anderson explores in his incisive introduction, Machiavelli’s hard-line outlook on power, politics, war, governance, and ethics has frightening parallels to the current trend toward authoritarianism in our global politics. Machiavelli: On Politics and Power is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the psychology and methods of power-hungry leaders, past and present.
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About Restless Classics
We all have “the list”: those classic books that we have the best intentions of reading, but which, after we graduate from school, become less urgent priorities. We've set out to address this problem with Restless Classics—a beautifully packaged, newly introduced and illustrated series of great books from the past that still speak to our time, our place, and, especially, our restlessness. In addition to their original artwork and fresh introductions, Restless Classics brings the classroom experience to the reader with linked online teaching videos.
Praise for Niccolò Machiavelli
“The staying power of The Prince comes from … its insistence on the need for a clear-sighted appreciation of how men really are as distinct from the moralizing claptrap about how they ought to be.”
—Alan Ryan, author of On Politics: A History of Political Thought from Herodotus to the Present
“It was Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, written in 1513, that first laid bare the moral world of politics and the gulf between private conscience and the demands of public action.”
—Michael Ignatieff, politician and historian
About the Author
© Antonio Maria Crespi Castoldi
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher and writer of the Renaissance period. As a young Florentine envoy to the courts of France and the Italian principalities, he witnessed firsthand how people could be united under a powerful leader. This vision motivated his writing on acquiring and maintaining political power.
About the Introducer
Jon Lee Anderson has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1998. He has covered numerous conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, reported frequently from Latin America and the Caribbean, and written profiles of Augusto Pinochet, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Gabriel García Márquez. He is the author of several books, including The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, Guerrillas: Journeys in the Insurgent World, and The Fall of Baghdad.
About the Illustrator
Born in Mexico in 1958, Eko is an engraver and painter. His wood etchings, often erotic in nature and the focus of controversial discussion, are part of a broader tradition in Mexican folk art popularized by José Guadalupe Posada. He has collaborated on projects for The New York Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Spanish daily El País, in addition to having published numerous books in Mexico and Spain.
About the Translators
W. K. Marriott (1847–1927) was a translator who is known for his translations of several of Machiavelli’s works, and for his translation of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. His 1908 translation of The Prince has been reprinted in several editions and anthologies of political theory, including this one.
Ninian Hill Thomson (1830–1921) was a British legal scholar, whose career spanned several decades and countries (Scotland, India, and England among them). Thomson spent his later years in Florence, and translated the work of both Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini: one of Machiavelli’s contemporaries and friends. Thomson’s translations are known for both their accessibility and their thoroughness.
Book Details
Paperback: $20
ISBN: 9781632062567
eBook ISBN: 9781632062574
Publication date: Mar 23, 2021
5.5" x 8.25" • 320 pages
Political Science—Government / Italy / Philosophy
Territory: World