emcrafting 's review for:

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

4.0

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3.5 stars. This was an assigned reading for a class, but it was a surprisingly quick and interesting read.

The Prince consists of a series of observations and words of advice on obtaining and maintaining power. Although Machiavelli refers to his hypothetical ruler as "the prince"--a stand-in term for any noble ruler--a lot of these concepts could easily apply to modern-day politicians. He advises leaders to strive towards an image of fairness and virtue, but not to shy away from taking decisive and ruthless action against enemies when necessary.

These theories are all very interesting, but part of the reason I struggled with this book at times was the extensive historical examples Machiavelli uses to illustrate them. I do enjoy history, but many of the leaders, battles, and conspiracies Machiavelli describes are too obscure for a modern reader who isn't an expert to understand. I skimmed a lot of those passages. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's definitely not the most enthralling read, but the reflections and implications for politics were still interesting enough to merit finishing the book.

Side note: I feel like a lot of fantasy authors could stand to read this. Maybe I'm being petty, but I've read way too many (YA especially) fantasy novels lately with exceptionally shitty world-building when it comes to political systems. Governments are oversimplified to the point that I feel as though I'm being talked down to, or at the very least that the author was too lazy to bother creating realistic political dynamics, systems, and history. The Prince forces the reader to consider certain political patterns and look at the way power is achieved and maintained in a more complex way--it's basically a self-help book on how to claim and hold onto a position of power.

Machiavelli takes a rather patriarchal perspective on politics--unfortunately, this is nothing unexpected considering it was written almost 500 years ago. Still, it's more than a bit annoying to spend the whole book reading about the accomplishments and capabilities of "great men". Women are mentioned only in passing, and only for the purpose of advising "the Prince" to refrain from regularly seizing the property (read as: wives) of men under his rule. Also, I know there were very few female monarchs who ruled in their own right during this time period, but damn the persistence of the patriarchy always gets me angry. There's at least one section that explains various actions taken by Ferdinand, King of Aragon and Castile, but it completely ignores the existence of Ferdinand's wife, Queen Isabella, whO IS ONLY ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AND POWERFUL MONARCHS IN ALL OF SPANISH AND EUROPEAN HISTORY.

Okay, rant over.

If you like politics and history, or you want to take over the world, you should definitely read this book.