How Machiavelli's World Shaped Our Own
At the time of Machiavelli's death, few people, if any, recognized in his thought and actions the start of a new, radically modern epoch in politics.
by John Minnich
June 21, 2015
Analysis
The world in which Florentine statesman Niccolo Machiavelli lived scarcely resembles our own. City-states have been replaced with nation-states. Empires have collapsed, never to be rebuilt. And modern warfare is waged with weapons and tactics the likes of which he could have never imagined. Yet similarities remain. Although he died nearly 500 years ago today, Machiavelli would be able to navigate our politics as deftly as he navigated his, because the principles that govern them remain much the same.
At the time of his death, Machiavelli was well known in northern Italy for his service as a politician and diplomat in Republican Florence from 1498 to 1512 and as a writer of Commedia Erudita, or "learned comedy" plays. He was less well known for two works that now define his legacy: The Prince, first distributed under the title On Princip…
 |
|