The Prince and Other Writings, by Niccolò Machiavelli

[Andrea]

I selected The Prince and Other Writings as my Week #8 read. I purchased this pretty edition at a recent book sale under the condition that I could not keep it unless I actually read it!

[Andrea]

The Prince is a classic written in the early 1500s. It reveals the political philosophy espoused by Machiavelli, a displaced statesman of the Florentine Republic. The Medici family has forced his untimely retirement after winning absolute power over Florence. As evidenced by the dedication to Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, and later confirmed in a letter written by Machiavelli, this handy guide is an attempt to provide his insights to the Medicis in hopes of currying their favor.

What a roller coaster read this was! After shaking off a maddening urge to grab a pencil and notebook in the beginning, I started to lose focus and had to reread several pages. Suddenly, an allusion to my ancestors caught my eye. What? We were only good as hired muscle? Totally dispirited, I fired up the discipline engines and resumed course.

That lasted all of ten seconds. My mind started wandering again, and I found myself quite flummoxed. Machiavelli seemed very earnest in his writing, and Italy was a mess, but what relevancy could such leadership skills hold today that would make this book a classic? That was when the light bulb went on. I thought about the tenets and tactics used in various organized crime factions and, keeping this newfound relevance in mind, cruised through the rest of the book.

During the rather lengthy course of my read, I happened to discuss this book with two of my children. While my daughter offered to lend me her less-than-two-hundred-page management textbook after I finished the first chapter, my son proceeded to throw a monkey wrench into my final interpretation. "Mom, I learned that it was a satire."

Huh? A satire? Machiavelli did write this book in the same year that the Medicis sent him to the rack as a possible conspirator. This work was published posthumously. Machiavelli did write romantic comedies. Some of the suggested measures could be interpreted as sarcastic exaggerations, especially by modern standards. Could The Prince's proposals really be comparable to infanticide as an answer to overpopulation and famine?

Or, could it just be that people today cannot wrap their heads around the barbarity of the past? The writing seemed so genuine. Knowing what he did about various Italian governments and wishing Italy to thrive, Machiavelli could feasibly have outlined a harsh, monarchical plan to insure rule and forwarded it to the Medicis to regain his position. The later release of the book could indicate a life-sustaining action by Machiavelli but could just as easily be viewed as a Medici move to reserve private ownership. There was also that belatedly discovered letter that purportedly confirmed Machiavelli's intent.

Yes, I suppose that The Prince could be a satire, but I cannot fully accept this view at present nor, do I think, can other "businessmen" of more recent times.

This question is definitely food for future thought. Thanks, Dude.