Machiavelli in Hell

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Machiavelli in Hell

Author: Sebastian De Grazia
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Publisher: Vintage Books USA
In this intellectual biography Sebastian de Grazia presents a new vision of Niccolo Machiavelli that evokes, with uncanny precision, the great Florentine thinker’s presence. After providing an engrossing account of Machiavelli’s childhood and the period following his imprisonment and torture, the book turns to an examination of The Prince. The details of Machiavelli’s life — his home, journeys, fears and joys, friends, loves, and works — never cease to weave in and out of the narrative, as we read how his ideas gather power and coalesce into a unified vision of humankind and the world.
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Amazon.com

This intellectual biography of the 16th century Italian quotes exclusively from Machiavelli’s own words rather than quoting others who commented upon him. In this way de Grazia, a professor at Rutgers, paints a colorful portrait of the man entirely in the context of his time. In The Prince Machiavelli had famously examined the dilemma of the ruler who must find a resolution between political necessity and ethical behavior. By thus inventing ‘realpolitik’ Machiavelli entered the language of political discourse, and got himself rather a bad name. De Grazia’s book, which won a Pulitzer Prize, goes some way to rehabilitating him, suggesting that his immoral means were put to good political ends.

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