The Prince

The Prince

Niccolo Machiavelli

There were moments of the Prince that felt like I was trudging through molasses with iron boots on and a dirty sock stuffed in my mouth—while I can appreciate what would have been the originality of these ideas for his time, especially set forth so directly, I found the work overall tedious and was constantly counting the pages to see how much more I had left.

A lot of what he talks about is essentially common sense, but maybe that’s just it. It seem like common sense now, because his ideas has so permeated our views of geo-political issues that the entire work feels a bit like some drunk relation cornering you at a wedding to tell you their opinion on what your doing with your life for the one-billionth time.

Some of the historical facts and used as examples made it easier, if only to allow me to visualize people locked in combat or feed into my love of ancient history. Still, it essentially took me longer to get through this particularly text because I didn’t find myself enraptured by it—then again, this isn’t a story or a narrative, it’s a manual, so why should I be surprised that it reads like one.

Machiavelli does have a keen wit and, when rereading passages with a grain of salt, I could appreciate some of his sarcasm. Especially since he supposedly hated the Medici family and that who he was writing too…

While I’ve read countless texts no doubt inspired, at least in part, by the ideas in the Prince during my “tenure” as a grad student in political science, I’m glad I read the original text—if only to appreciate house for better knowing the foundation.