Anyone know about Niccolo Machiavelli?

Question

Anyone know about Niccolo Machiavelli?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B...

Answer 2

yes he was a poet :)

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Answer 3

It is ironic that most people know Machiavelli from "The Prince" (and poorly understood fragments at that), because there is reason to believe that Machiavelli himself considered it far from his best work.  It is short, direct, and addresses how a prince can best hold and maintain power in a very practical way that can come to be called 'Machiavellian'. Still, that there is much of interest in even this can be seen from its continued popularity 500 years later.

What is usually considered to be Machiavelli's masterwork are the "Discourses on Livy". Those who take the time to read this sometimes say that they are seeing an entirely different Machiavelli... but really an exceptionally careful reading of "The Prince" provides much the same view.

The Discourses touch on many things that would be surprisingly familiar to anyone in a modern republic: systems of checks and balances, a love of liberty, and an appreciation for the amount of political turmoil which must necessarily be present in a free exchange of ideas. I would say that someone who underestimates the significance of these works is probably only exposing their own ignorance of them... they were among the books Thomas Jefferson specifically collected in his library to help guide him in forming the American republic.

With books and books full of ideas (and densely-packed ones at that), it is difficult to summarize them easily. Most of them are political in nature, and suffice it to say that they are still very relevant. Machiavelli even made Will Durant's list of  '100 best books for an education' twice!  Hope that helps!

Answer 4

Nice guy(!) - you'd find his magnum opus  (The Prince) on the bookshelves of Hitler, Stalin and Margaret Thatcher amongst others