Synopses & Reviews
The Prince, a political treatise by the Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli is widely regarded as the single most influential book on politicsand in particular on the the politics of powerever written.
In this groundbreaking book, Philip Bobbitt explores this often misunderstood work in the context of the time. He describes The Prince as one half of a masterpiece that, along with Machiavellis often neglected Discourses prophesies the end of the feudal era and describes the birth of the neoclassical
Renaissance State. Using both Renaissance examples and cases drawn from our current era, Bobbitt situates Machiavellis work as a turning point in our understanding of the relation between war and law as these create and maintain the State. This is a fascinating history and commentary by the man Henry Kissinger called "the outstanding political philosopher of our time."
Review
Riddles for centuries, the beginning and ending of Machiavellis The Prince have finally found a plausible explanation.
Provocative.” Bryce Christensen, Booklist
Review
With his profound knowledge of history, philosophy, politics and law, Professor Bobbitt has made a major contribution to penetrating the thought of Machiavelli and illuminating its context. This extraordinary intellectual endeavor may well become a new standard interpretation.” Henry A. Kissinger
Riddles for centuries, the beginning and ending of Machiavellis The Prince have finally found a plausible explanation.
Provocative.” Bryce Christensen, Booklist
Review
With his profound knowledge of history, philosophy, politics and law, Professor Bobbitt has made a major contribution to penetrating the thought of Machiavelli and illuminating its context. This extraordinary intellectual endeavor may well become a new standard interpretation.”Henry A. Kissinger
An astute reexamination of one of historys most widely read documents of political instruction. . . . Despite its rigor, the book is anything but a bore, and Bobbitt employs apposite historical asides from Italy and elsewhere to make his points, including some popes behaving badly whom fans of Showtimes The Borgias will recognize. This book should be required reading for any young ruler trying to organize his principality without blunder, or, failing that, anyone interested in the history of statecraft”The Daily Beast
Riddles for centuries, the beginning and ending of Machiavellis The Prince have finally found a plausible explanation. . . . Provocative.”Booklist
The value of Bobbitts book is that it puts on the front burner the thinking of a man referred to by Marlowe and Shakespeare and found on the must-read lists of Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler. . . . And Bobbitt is not without moments of wry humor.”Sante Fe New Mexican
Bobbitt
presents a pithy, eloquent argument for The Prince as a constitutional tract and Machiavelli as the spiritual forefather of the US Constitution. . . . [The Garments of Court and Palace is] well worth reading.” The Spectator (UK)
About the Author
Philip Bobbitt has taught constitutional law and international security and strategy at the University of Texas, Harvard, and Columbia, where he has a permanent chair and is Director of the Center for National Security. He was Legal Counsel to the Senate's Iran-Contra Committee, Counselor for International Law at the State Department under George H. W. Bush, director for Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council, senior director for Critical Infrastructure, and senior director for Strategic Planning under Bill Clinton. The author of The Shield of Achilles, and Terror and Consent, he lives in New York, London, and Austin.