Machiavelli

[weirdquark]

A friend of mine, a professor of history specializing in the Italian Renaissance, just wrote this excellent blog post about Florence and Machiavelli; I remembered noticing that someone was reading/had recently Machiavelli's The Prince and thought they (and other people) might be interested in some historical context.

[Jcannon98188]

Don't have time to read that right now, but something interesting.

I recently learned that The Prince was actually just a satire. Machiavelli did not believe ANY of what he wrote. He wrote that purely to make fun of the government at that time, and if you compare it to his other works, it is nothing like what he normally does.

Anyways, I will read this as soon as I get off work, as I love history and whatnot.

[Maj. Bloodnok]

Well, not necessarily a satire; more along the lines of a book-length kiss-up. I do agree with the point of the blog post, though: Machiavelli was most interested in preserving his city, and he would do whatever was necessary to do so. Even if it meant inventing political science. :-)

Ol' Niccolo had a wicked sense of humor: ever read 'The Mandrake'? It's a scream, even after 600 years.

[leadchipmunk]

I was one of the people that fought through The Prince last challenge, so I'll definitely look into this article when I get the chance. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Also, I too heard that what he said in The Prince was against his normal beliefs.