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Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction, by Quentin Skinner
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Machiavelli taught that political leaders must be prepared to do evil that good may come of it. Offering the first brief introduction to Machiavelli's thought to appear in twenty-five years, Skinner focuses on his three major works, The Prince, Discourses, and The History of Florence. He discusses the influence of Roman moral thought on Machiavelli, concentrating on the extent to which Machiavelli's teachings represent a reaction against this tradition. Placing Machiavelli in the proper social and intellectual context, Skinner reveals the extraordinary originality of his attack on the prevailing moral and political assumptions of his age.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
- Sales Rank: #710482 in Books
- Brand: imusti
- Published on: 2001-01-18
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 4.30" h x .40" w x 6.70" l, .26 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 120 pages
- Oxford University Press, USA
Review
"[An] excellent brief study, incorporating much recent research effectively without losing the author's own distinctive viewpoint. Lucidly written. A fine contribution."--Marcia L. Colish, Oberlin College
"An exceptionally lucid biographical sketch and analysis of Machiavelli's ideology. For beginning students of this subject, I have never found anything better."--James E. McGoldrick, Cedarville College
About the Author
Quentin Skinner is Professor of Political Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ's College. His The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, published in 1978, won a Wolfson Literary Award.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Now, for the Rest of the (Machiavelli) Story
By Stephen N. Greenleaf
When anyone reads Machiavelli, it’s inevitably The Prince that’s read, and reading Machiavelli usually stops there. Short, pungent, and provocative, The Prince is an easy choice that facilitates endless consideration. But in some sense, while it’s The Prince that puts Machiavelli on the map—beginning immediately upon its publication and continuing to today—this does some disservice to Machiavelli and his underlying project. The Prince is a manual for those wanting to establish a regime in the world of the Italian city-state during the Renaissance. It also serves as a job application, prompted by the hope that the Medici family that had ousted Machiavelli from his position as a Florentine diplomat would bring him back from exile to serve them. (It didn’t work—but what a great audition!) But despite its later acclaim, The Prince addressed only the short game for Machiavelli. Machiavelli most wanted to see the re-establishment of a republic in Florence that could follow in the glory of Roman Republic, the ultimate template for a political regime according to Machiavelli.
One the values of Quentin Skinner’s Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction (part of the Very Short Introduction books published by Oxford University Press) is that Skinner explores all of Machiavelli’s work. Skinner is a preeminent historian of political thought, especially that of the early modern period. His aim is to relate Machiavelli’s thought, not to comment upon it. Thus, we receive a direct, concise, and thorough introduction to Machiavelli’s life and work. Because Machiavelli’s The Prince elicited such strong opinions—most often in the form of opprobrium—from the time of its first readers and continuing to today—it’s an extremely valuable service to learn exactly what Machiavelli thought in total (short of reading it all ourselves). I don’t think that I’ve encountered a more comprehensive and useful guide to the whole of Machiavelli’s thought.
The comprehensiveness that Skinner provides the reader in his chronological account of Machiavelli’s writings and life provides an opportunity to see Machiavelli’s writings address the whole of his concerns, and his primary concern was not with would-be princes, but with republics. Machiavelli was first and foremost a republican. Not a democrat, mind you, but a disciple of liberty and mixed government. Neither monarchy or aristocracy nor democracy alone works as a form of government (ordini) that promotes liberty; only a careful mixture of all three allows liberty to flower. Machiavelli’s concept of liberty requires that a city-state (his preferred political entity, exemplified by classical Rome and (sometimes) Renaissance Florence) must remain independent of outside powers and remain internally balanced between the rich, who will seek for forward their private agendas, and the people, who will seek to counter-balance rich. Machiavelli believes that a republic can only survive through the existence of virtu within the individuals that form the polity as whole. But virtu in individuals and the states that they create is subject corruption and decay, and this worm in the rose becomes a central preoccupation for Machiavelli the republican.
One of the pleasures of reading Skinner’s work on Machiavelli was the careful consideration of the issues that Machiavelli addressed. After reviewing this book, you will understand why Machiavelli remains topical. Even if you don’t agree with all of Machiavelli’s prescriptions and analyses (that are often harsh), you will appreciate that Machiavelli raises and frames a great number issues that we must still address today. For instance, the practice of the super-rich to dominate political decision-making through buying the favor of political candidates via (often anonymous) “campaign contributions” injures our Republic. Machiavelli identified this tendency, although he suggests that the mass of people would see through this ploy and rebel. That has not happened in the U.S., where only a small, vocal, and (mostly ineffectual) minority raises a cry against this corruption. Machiavelli also struggles with the problem of decay that corruption entails, and he attributes decay to the loss of virtu among the people and their leaders. Machiavelli’s perspective on this problem is similar to that of Ibn Khaldun, the medieval North African thinker considered by contemporary authors such as Earnest Gellner and Peter Turchin. And on the corruption of our republic, Machiavelli seems as if he’d be right at home discussing these concerns with our contemporaries such as Lawrence Lessig or Francis Fukuyama, who’ve penned valuable works on the corruption of our political system. Lessig, for instance, has been a leader in trying to stem the influence of very big money—think Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson—on our political process.
Almost any introductory course about political philosophy or political theory will address Machiavelli, but probably only as the author of The Prince, but this is a disservice. In an ideal world, student would, at a minimum, read the Discourses as well. (I admit I haven’t—yet.) But having read this book by Quentin Skinner, I can now claim a much greater appreciation of this thinker-actor who brought political thought deeper into the world of political reality.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
A superb brief introduction to a misunderstood thinker
By Robert Moore
I first read this short introduction to Machiavelli about ten years ago, when it was a volume in the Oxford University Press Past Masters series. It has been resurrected in updated form to be a part of their Very Brief Introductions series. The changes are all to the good. Whereas the Past Masters edition was printed on cheap paper with a tendency to age and yellow, the new edition features updated bibliography, the addition of graphics, reset font, a sturdier binding and paper cover, and a much higher grade of paper. In everyway, this new volume is an improvement over the earlier edition.
Content wise, you couldn't ask for a better brief introduction to Machiavelli. Skinner is one of the great historians of political thought of this generation, and probably the finest. His knowledge of 16th and 17th century political thought is difficult to rival. He covers Machiavelli's political thought in loosely chronological fashion, blending the highpoints of his biography with longer expositions of his three great political works. There are four chapters in all. The first details some of Machiavelli's experience working as a diplomat for the Florentine republic. It was by observing many of the political leaders he dealt with that he gathered the ideas for the composition by which he is best known today, THE PRINCE. Chapter Two provides a brief sketch of the contents and argument of THE PRINCE, and it alone would justify the purchase of the book. Luckily, the book contains more, including an exposition of his DISCOURSES ON LIVY in Chapter Three. This chapter (and Machiavelli's book) should be of great interest to any American interested in the founding of the United States, because many of the Founders considered themselves students of Machiavelli, though not of THE PRINCE, but the discourses. Most of the Founders had a fascination with the Roman Republic, and in founding the United States sought to emulate many of its features. Much of their exposure to the Roman Republic came via Livy and through Machiavelli's book, which covers the first ten books of Livy's history of Rome. The final chapter covers the history of Florence that the Medici family commissioned him to write, a history that expresses a deeply ambivalent opinion about the value of principalities over republics.
Skinner's book will not substitute for the reading of Machiavelli, and it certainly cannot constitute an in depth study of his work. But it makes an absolutely ideal overview to anyone about to read any of Machiavelli's works.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
magisterial
By toronto
This is still the best short introduction to Machiavelli. What makes it special is the deep referencing to classical ideas and their development and ironic or direct refutation in Machiavelli. Skinner is a master of the political literature and it shows here.
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