About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

This revised edition of Mansfield's acclaimed translation features an updated bibliography, a substantial glossary, an analytic introduction, a chronology of Machiavelli's life, and a map of Italy in Machiavelli's time.

Of the other available [translations], that of Harvey C. Mansfield makes the necessary compromises between exactness and readability, as well as providing an excellent introduction and notes.--Clifford Orwin, The Wall Street Journal

Mansfield's work . . . is worth acquiring as the best combination of accuracy and readability.--Choice

There is good reason to assert that Machiavelli has met his match in Mansfield. . . . [He] is ready to read Machiavelli as he demands to be read--plainly and boldly, but also cautiously.--John Gueguen, The Sixteenth Century Journal

The lion cannot guard himself from the toils, nor the fox from wolves. A Prince must therefore be a fox to discern toils, and a lion to drive off wolves.

The modern-day term Machiavellian is used to describe deception, dishonesty, and cruelty to meet a goal. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli was written as a guide for autocrats on how to govern using means that were meant to deceive and manipulate a government's constituency-to the extent of advocating the use of evil for political expediency.

In this classic work, the end justifies the means reigns paramount to Machiavelli's system of government.

Machiavelli draws on his extensive historical knowledge and experience as a statesman to examine the reasons that Kings, Emperors, Dukes and governments have thrived or crumbled, while highlighting the principles that guided them. In each case Machiavelli suggests a set of principles that any leader would find difficult to follow, but impossible to ignore.

The Prince has had a profound influence on political thought over the past 500 years, so much so that the term 'Machiavellian' is used to describe one who deceives and manipulates others. This is likely derived from Machiavelli's view that it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state. Machiavelli continues to provide an understanding of how world leaders think, and why certain decisions are made. A must read for the politically inclined and those interested in world events and the affairs of state.

This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

[Machiavelli] found in Livy the means to inspire scholars for five centuries. Within the Discourses, often hidden and sometimes unintended by their author, lie the seeds of modern political thought. . . . [Mansfield and Tarcov's] translation is careful and idiomatic.--Peter Stothard, The Times

Translated with painstaking accuracy--but also great readability.--Weekly Standard

A model of contemporary scholarship and a brave effort at Machiavelli translation that allows the great Florentine to speak in his own voice.--Choice

The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise written by Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli as an instruction guide for new princes and royals. The general theme of The Prince is of accepting that the aims of princes - such as glory and survival - can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.

Machiavelli scholar Christopher Lynch offers a sensitive and entirely new translation of the Art of War, faithful to the original but rendered in modern, idiomatic English. Lynch's fluid translation helps readers appreciate anew Machiavelli's brilliant treatments of the relationships between war and politics, civilians and the military, and technology and tactics. Clearly laying out the fundamentals of military organization and strategy, Machiavelli marshals a veritable armory of precepts, prescriptions, and examples about such topics as how to motivate your soldiers and demoralize the enemy's, avoid ambushes, and gain the tactical and strategic advantage in countless circumstances.

To help readers better appreciate the Art of War, Lynch provides an insightful introduction that covers its historical and political context, sources, influence, and contemporary relevance. He also includes a substantial interpretive essay discussing the military, political, and philosophical aspects of the work, as well as maps, an index of names, and a glossary.

Machiavelli taught Europe the art of war; it had long been practiced, without being known. Voltaire

The Art of War, one of the few major works of Machiavelli published in his lifetime, is an interesting discussion of how armies should be armed and organized.

Excerpt:

No proceeding is better than that which you have concealed from the enemy until the time you have executed it. To know how to recognize an opportunity in war, and take it, benefits you more than anything else. Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many. Discipline in war counts more than fury.

Widely acknowledged as Machiavelli's defining work, The Prince is an innovative and rich treatise marked by his political theories and the principles of leadership. Based upon his own experiences witnessing the actions of great men and the often immoral aspects that come with power, Machiavelli encouraged ambition amongst leaders--which was a break from the philosophy of other contemporary thinkers. The Prince identifies the aims of powerful leaders, which can help to justify the use of largely immoral means in their methods.

With a new foreword by scholar Christopher Celenza, this essential work on politics contemplates leadership in a manner still relevant today. This lesson in autocratic rule will provide the reader with the author's rational approach to control and the contextualization for the term Machiavellian.

This special edition of The Art of War by Machiavelli & The Prince by Machiavelli unites both of Machiavelli's renowned volumes on strategy so that the philosophy and mechanisms for obtaining power and managing power may be seen as a single entity.

Possessed of a great intellect, Niccolo Machiavelli was uniquely suited to examine and explain the important details of statecraft. Machiavelli, like Plato, Pythagoras and Confucius two hundred odd decades before him, saw only one method by which a thinking man, himself not powerful, might do the work of state building, and that was by seizing the imagination of a Prince. With these writings, he has influenced the history of the world.

Machiavelli has so influenced human civilization that the very term: Machiavellian, has come to mean that which is characterized by expediency, deceit, and cunning. A prime example is his advice: A wise prince, when he has the opportunity, ought with craft to foster some animosity against himself, so that, having crushed it, his renown may rise higher. His advice, on this and other suggested intrigues, has been heeded by various heads of state for over four hundred years.

Other special edition books in this series dealing with the subject of warfare and strategy include:

The Art of War By Sun Tzu - Special Edition

The Art of War By Mao Tse-tung - Special Edition

The Art of War By Baron De Jomini - Special Edition

The description for this book, Florentine Histories, will be forthcoming.

The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise written by Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli as an instruction guide for new princes and royals. The general theme of The Prince is of accepting that the aims of princes - such as glory and survival - can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.

The Discourses is a work of political history and philosophy. The work is an analysis of the first ten books of Livy's Ab urbe condita, which describe the expansion of Rome through the end of the Third Samnite War in 293 BCE. Machiavelli also discusses what can be learned from many other eras including contemporary politics. He describes Romans and other ancient peoples as superior models for his contemporaries, but he also describes political greatness as something which comes and goes amongst peoples, in cycles.

Written in the early 16^th century, The Discourses were published posthumously with papal privilege in 1531. The text comprises a dedication letter and three books with 142 numbered chapters. Many scholars have studied the coincidence that Livy's history also contained 142 books in addition to its introduction as well as other numerological curiosities that turn up in Machiavelli's writings. The Discourses is often said to have paved the way of modern republicanism. While the book is primarily a discussion of the classical history of early Ancient Rome, it strays very far from this subject matter and uses contemporary political examples to illustrate points.

The question of order inspired two of the greatest political thinkers of the Renaissance--Niccol Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini, whose major works on the nature of government are linked in an authoritative new translation. Political adversaries but nonetheless friends, Machiavelli and Guicciardini both reflected on ancient Rome and refined their conceptions of government with an eye to the political turmoil of their own Florence.

Based on the definitive Italian editions and including extensive explanatory notes, this new translation recreates the fascinating conflict that helped to shape the history of political thought.

The Prince (Italian: Il Principe) is a 16th-century political treatise, by the Italian diplomat and political theorist, Niccol Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus (About Principalities). However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. This was done with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII, but long before then, in fact since the first appearance of The Prince in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings. Although it was written as if it were a traditional work in the mirrors for princes style, it is generally agreed that it was especially innovative. This is only partly because it was written in the vernacular Italian rather than Latin, a practice which had become increasingly popular since the publication of Dante's Divine Comedy and other works of Renaissance literature. The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning politics and ethics. Although it is relatively short, the treatise is the most remembered of Machiavelli's works and the one most responsible for bringing the word Machiavellian into usage as a pejorative. It even contributed to the modern negative connotations of the words politics and politician in western countries. 7] In terms of subject matter it overlaps with the much longer Discourses on Livy, which was written a few years later. In its use of near-contemporary Italians as examples of people who perpetrated criminal deeds for politics, another lesser-known work by Machiavelli which The Prince has been compared to is the Life of Castruccio Castracani. (Source: WikiPedia)

Power, strategy, and political survival intertwine as a cunning leader navigates the delicate balance of fear and respect. In a world of shifting alliances and ruthless ambition, the protagonist learns that maintaining control often means choosing pragmatism over morality. The narrative delves into the art of ruling, revealing tactics to secure loyalty and eliminate threats. This exploration of leadership's darker side remains a timeless study of ambition and influence.

Revolutionary for its time, The Prince broke from idealistic views of rulership, casting a stark light on the raw mechanics of power and survival. Machiavelli's work shifted political thought, presenting a pragmatic guide for rulers where effectiveness often outweighed ethics. This daring perspective shaped modern political science, introducing concepts like realpolitik and the importance of adaptability in leadership. Centuries later, The Prince continues to spark debate, offering an unflinching look at the complex dance between power and morality.