The Prince: Second Edition

About this book

The most famous and important book on politics ever written The Prince remains as lively and shocking today as when it was written almost five hundred years ago. Initially denounced as a collection of sinister maxims and a recommendation of tyranny it has more recently been defended as the first scientific treatment of politics as it is practiced rather than as it ought to be practiced. Harvey C. Mansfields brilliant translation of this classic work along with the new materials added for this edition make it the definitive version of The Prince indispensable to scholars students and those interested in the dark art of politics. This revised edition of Mansfields acclaimed translation features an updated bibliography a substantial glossary an analytic introduction a chronology of Machiavellis life and a map of Italy in Machiavellis time. "Of the other available translations that of Harvey C. Mansfield makes the necessary compromises between exactness and readability as well as providing an excellent introduction and notes."Clifford Orwin The Wall Street Journal "Mansfields work . . . is worth acquiring as the best combination of accuracy and readability."Choice "There is good reason to assert that Machiavelli has met his match in Mansfield. . . . He is ready to read Machiavelli as he demands to be readplainly and boldly but also cautiously."John Gueguen The Sixteenth Century Journal