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He is the most infamous and influential political writer of all time His name has become synonymous with cynical scheming and the selfish pursuit of power Niccol Machiavelli Florentine diplomat and civil servant is the father of political science His most notorious work The Prince is a primer on how to acquire and retain power without regard to scruple or conscience His other masterpiece The Discourses offers a profound analysis of the workings of the civil state and a hardheaded assessment of human nature Machiavellis philosophy was shaped by the tumultuous age in which he lived an age of towering geniuses and brutal tyrants He was on intimate terms with Leonardo and Michelangelo His first political mission was to spy on the fire-and-brimstone preacher Savonarola As a diplomat he matched wits with the corrupt and carnal Pope Alexander VI and his son the notorious Cesare Borgia whose violent career served as a model for The Prince His insights were gleaned by closely studying men like Julius II the Warrior Pope and his successor the vacillating Clement VII as well as two kings of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Analyzing their successes and failures Machiavelli developed his revolutionary approach to power politics Machiavelli was above all a student of human nature In The Prince he wrote a practical guide to the aspiring politician that is based on the world as it is not as it should be He has been called cold and calculating cynical and immoral In reality argues biographer Miles Unger he was a deeply humane writer whose controversial theories were a response to the violence and corruption he saw around him He was a psychologist with acute insight into human nature centuries before Freud A brilliant and witty writer he was not only a political theorist but also a poet and the author of La Mandragola the finest comedy of the Italian Renaissance He has been called the first modern man unafraid to contemplate a world without God Rising from modest beginnings on the strength of his own talents he was able to see through the pious hypocrisy of the age in which he lived Miles Unger has relied on original Italian sources as well as his own deep knowledge of Florence in writing this fascinating and authoritative account of a genius whose work remains as relevant today as when he wrote it.



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