| Product Summary | | Format: Paperback | | ISBN: 9780192804730 | | Publisher: 101 Productions | | Buy.com Sku: 33843306 | | Item#: BYF53D | | Dimensions (in Inches) 7.5H x 5L x 1T | | Pages: 448 |
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| | | IDiscourses on Livy (1531) is as essential to an understanding of Machiavelli as his famous treatise, The Prince. Equally controversial, it reveals his fundamental preference for a republican state. Comparing the practice of the ancient Romans with that of his contemporaries provided Machiavelli with a consistent point of view in all his works. Machiavelli's close analysis of Livy's history of Rome led him to advance his most original and outspoken view of politics - the belief that a healthy body politic was characterized by social friction and conflict rather than by rigid stability. His discussion of conspiracies in Discourses on Livy is one of the most sophisticated treatments of archetypal political upheaval every written. In an age of increasing political absolutism, Machiavelli's theories became a dangerous ideology. This new translation is richly annotated, providing the contemporary reader with sufficient historical, linguistic, and political information to understand and interpret the revolutionary affirmations Machiavelli made, based on the historical evidence he found in Livy.
| Praisead
"This is the definitive translation of what is surely the most underappreciated masterpiece of modern political philosophy. Mansfield and Turcov have made Machiavelli's careful and subtle prose truly accessible for English-speaking readers for the first time, and in a form which is exemplary for texts of this kind." - Carnes LordTimes (London)
"[Machiavelli] found in Livy the means to inspire scholars for five centuries. Within the 'Discourses', often hidden and sometimes unintended by their author, lie the seeds of modern political thought....[Mansfield and Tarcov's] translation is careful and idiomatic." - Peter Stothard |
| Author Bio| Niccolo Machiavelli | | Niccol? di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, author of the influential political treatise THE PRINCE, lived and worked for the majority of his life in his beloved Florence, Italy. At the age of 29, he entered public service as a secondary-level government chancellor. Machiavelli eventually gained more power, taking on duties in foreign affairs and defense, and voyaging to different parts of Europe on various missions. In 1512, the Medicis returned to power after having been in exile, and Machiavelli was relinquished from his position, imprisoned and tortured. After his ordeal, Machiavelli returned to a family estate near Florence, in poverty. Machiavelli wrote THE PRINCE (1513) during this period, as well as the majority of THE DISCOURSES ON LIVY (1531). Additionally, Machiavelli wrote poems, plays, and a large body of correspondence, including a multi-volume HISTORY OF FLORENCE (1532) and the dramatic comedy THE MANDRAKE (La Mandragola, 1518). Following the death of Duke Lorenzo de Medici, Machiavelli returned to public service in both a political capacity, and as the official historiographer of the republic. The word "Machiavellian" has come to be associated with the dishonorable methods a ruler may employ in attaining and maintaining power. Nevertheless, Machiavelli has influenced countless Western philosophers and rulers, and his contribution to ethical debates and political theory is significant. |
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