Machiavelli in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series) - Hardcover

Strathern, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1566632129 ISBN 13: 9781566632126

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, 1998

Synopsis

In Machiavelli in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Machiavelli's life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Machiavelli's writings; a brief list of suggested reading for those who wish to push further; and chronologies that place Machiavelli within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

About this title

Review:

In writing about Machiavelli, Paul Strathern must contend with centuries of posthumous demonification by critics who have seen The Prince as a recipe for tyranny and evil. (Bertrand Russell, for one, declared it "a handbook for gangsters.") Tyranny, perhaps, but as Strathern points out, Machiavelli's political philosophy "was not evil in itself. It was just extremely realistic."

But The Prince is, as philosophical works go, fairly easygoing; it's about the same length as this primer, with a clarity that renders further explication somewhat superfluous. Machiavelli in 90 Minutes, then, is primarily of use if you want a quick-and-dirty biography that puts the writings in the biographical context of Machiavelli's turbulent fortunes in the political intrigues of Renaissance Florence.

About the Author:

Paul Strathern is a Somerset Maugham prize-winning novelist, and his nonfiction works include The Venetians; The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior; Napoleon in Egypt; and Mendeleyev s Dream: The Quest for the Elements. He lives in England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1566632129
• ISBN 13: 9781566632126
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96