Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli taught that political leaders must be prepared to do evil that good may come of it, and his name has been a byword ever since for duplicity and immorality. Is his sinister reputation deserved? In answering this question Quentin Skinner focuses on three major works, The Prince, the Discourses, and The History of Florence, and distills from them an introduction to Machiavelli of exemplary clarity.

Quentin Skinner is the Regus Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Christ's college. His numerous books on such subjects as political theory have been translated into many languages. In 1979, his two-volume study The Foundations of Modern Political Thought won the Wolfson Literary Prize.