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Whistle Stopper - The Prince (Bantam Classics)
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List Price: $4.50
Our Price: $0.88
Your Save: $ 3.62 ( 80% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.1
EAN: 9780553212785
ISBN: 0553212788
Label: Bantam Classics
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 176
Publication Date: 1984-09-01
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Release Date: 1984-08-01
Studio: Bantam Classics
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not much I can add
Comment: What more to write that others haven't? It's The Prince, Machiavelli's work, chances are you're coming in with a lot of preconceived notions, assumptions, or just intrigue.
First, the writing style. The book is divided into short essays. This makes it great for reading for 5 minute bursts or sitting down and reading at leisure. The language is natural and flowing, for the most part. Some of the references are to "contemporary" actions, which unless you study fifteenth-century Italian politics will be a bit over your head. Still, points are made, and examples usually at least have a sentence of background.
Now, the content. Not being in the business of power, I can't attest to the efficacy of the claims. The author certainly does a good job of making his case: using examples, hypotheticals, abstract theories and a dash of reason. I do now look at things like office politics, organized crime and international relations in a new light, trying to understand if the concepts still apply. Surprisingly, a number of them seem to play out no matter the stakes or timeframe. So for a new perspective, this book does deliver.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Comment: What can I say?
Since I was first enchanted by this book, many, many years ago, I have recommended it to anyone who has problems with other people attempting to maneuver or manipulate them. The outlook presented in these pages is comprehensive and provides a philosophy that can empower one in all sorts of adverse circumstances while learning to spot and avoid future problems.
Definitely, 'required reading' :)
Customer Rating:
Summary: A guide to gaining and maintaining power
Comment: This book was written by the famous Italian statesman Niccolo Machiavelli in 1531. This book is a classic and I was pleasantly surprised that the content was not dated and the principles translate easily into the modern worlds of business and politics.
The author wrote this book as an instruction guide for governing princes in the 1500's when Italy was divided into city states and were being defeated by many foreign powers. I belive that the work is directed to Lorenzo de Medici by a letter included in the work and because at the end of the writing Machiavelli calls for a prince to unite and lead Italy against its oppressors.
The book is not unethical as I had imagined from my understanding of the ruthlessness of Machiavellian ethics. The author is only explaining tactics to use to maintain power in a kingdom or city state that are pragmatic for his time period.
Here are some examples from the book:
1. When conquering a territory keep the current laws and institutions in place, but eliminate all the family of the defeated prince.
2. When trouble is sensed ahead of time it can be easily remedied, if you wait for it to show itself, it is to late.
3. Whoever is responsible for another becoming powerful, ruins himself.
4. There is no surer way of keeping possesion than by devastation.
5. Men do you are harm either because they hate you or they fear you.
6. Violence must be inflicted once and for all, it must be over quickly.
7. Build your power through the people.
8. Power is maintained through religious institutions.
9. Neglect the art of war and you lose your state.
10. If you act virtuously, you will be undone by those who are not, make use of this or not according to need.
The above is just a small sampling of the lessons in this book. My review can not do this book justice, it is full of wisdom and life lessons. It is a guide book for business leaders and politicians. I strongly suggest adding this book to your home library and referring to it often.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No, not Prince the artist...
Comment: If you want to compare 'The Prince' with the artist 'Prince', it will result in one big contradiction. Where the artist needed 60 or so albums to get his point across, Machiavelli only needed this one book to withstand the test of time.
This book takes you back to the time when Italy was still divided and mainly ruled and crueled by the De Medici family. Although the rulers have been replaced and most methods have been replaced by other, more covert dealings, its writings are still acurate. The Prince is more about mankind than about politcs, as they are a result of society. It actually makes you wonder what we've progressed in 500 years.
As Machiavelli is often confused with double-tongue persuasion, this book is not about these dealings at all. This book is about society and man's own interest to protect his world as he sees it.
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Summary: How to prevent your most oppressed denizens from revolting horribly upon you
Comment: A good instruction manual for your aspiring evil dictator type. It's got some good advice on how to take over the world, sure, but most of the advice is about holding onto it without getting your most oppressed denizens too terribly worked up about being took over. So be warned: if you want really good advice on the taking over of the world part, go find Sun Tzu. This book is about the aftermath. Which is not less interesting, it's just a bit less...belligerent. See definition one in your dictionaries.
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Editorial Reviews:
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When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book The Prince is. Its essential contribution to modern political thought lies in Machiavelli's assertion of the then revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena. "It must be understood," Machiavelli avers, "that a prince ... cannot observe all of those virtues for which men are reputed good, because it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state." With just a little imagination, readers can discern parallels between a 16th-century principality and a 20th-century presidency. --Tim Hogan
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