The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World

Powell, Jonathan

ISBN 10: 1847921221 / ISBN 13: 9781847921222

Published by The Bodley Head Ltd, 2010

About this Item

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned.

Seller Inventory # rev3118719843

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World
• Publisher: The Bodley Head Ltd
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847921221
• ISBN 13: 9781847921222
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 660 grams

About this title

Synopsis

From a former close advisor to Tony Blair, a devastating, frank and insightful analysis of how power is wielded in the modern world.

'Niccolò Machiavelli is misunderstood,' argues Jonathan Powell in his twenty-first-century reworking of the Italian philosopher's influential masterpiece, The Prince. Taking the lessons Machiavelli derived from his experience as an official in fifteenth-century Florence, Powell shows how these lessons can still apply today. Illustrating each of Machiavelli's maxims with a description of events that occurred during Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister, The New Machiavelli is designed to be The Prince for modern times.

Tony Blair's Chief of Staff from 1994-2007, Jonathan Powell recounts the inside story of that period -- drawing on his own unpublished diaries. He tackles the critics of Blair's 'sofa government' and gives a frank account of the intimate details of the internal political rows, the failure to join the Euro or hold a referendum on the European constitution, the struggle with the hauliers strike and the foot-and-mouth outbreak that postponed the 2001 election, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland, the relations with Clinton, Bush and Chirac, the banning of fox-hunting, the triumphs and failures of spin and the scandals and inquiries -- ranging from Bernie Ecclestone to the police investigation into 'cash for peerages'.

Like The Prince, The New Machiavelli is short, stark and clear. It provides a gripping account of life inside 'the bunker' of Number 10 and draws lessons from those experiences, not just for political leaders but for anyone today who has access to the levers of power.

About the Author

JONATHAN POWELL worked for the BBC and Granada TV before joining the Foreign Office in 1979. In 1994, Mr. Blair, then Leader of the Opposition, poached him to join his "kitchen cabinet" as his Chief of Staff. When the Labour party achieved its landslide victory in 1997 Powell was at the heart of the Downing Street machine. He was the only senior member of staff to remain at Blair's side