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"The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli

book review by Riley Burnham 7/24/2023

quite good(!)

a primer, more or less, on the ups & downs of being a prince [complete w/ distinguishing between principalities & republics...]

this gives us the pitfalls & successes of historical princes/rulers & how to best be

he points out that, for instance, arms & armies are necessary, to an extent, & the makeup of forces [contrasting mercenaries from others, etc.] will give greater & lesser control, & subsequently lend to success or failure of the prince [mercenaries are harder to control]

​​​​​​​using plenty of datapoints from history, Machiavelli gives us a compelling piece of insight, akin to stoicism or something like 'The Art of War' [which happens to be the title of another of his works...]

good stuff