Machiavelli in Context
(By William R. Cook)
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1 Who Is Machiavelli? Why Does He Matter?
2 Machiavelli’s Florence
3 Classical Thought in Renaissance Florence
4 The Life of Niccolò Machiavelli
5 Why Did Machiavelli Write The Prince?
6 The Prince, 1–5—Republics Old and New
7 The Prince, 6–7—Virtù and Fortuna
8 The Prince, 8–12—The Prince and Power
9 The Prince, 13–16—The Art of Being a Prince
10 The Prince, 17–21—The Lion and the Fox
11 The Prince, 21–26—Fortune and Foreigners
12 Livy, the Roman Republic, and Machiavelli
13 Discourses—Why Machiavelli Is a Republican
14 Discourses—The Workings of a Good Republic
15 Discourses—Lessons from Rome
16 Discourses—A Principality or a Republic?
17 Discourses—The Qualities of a Good Republic
18 Discourses—A Republic at War
19 Discourses—Can Republics Last?
20 Discourses—Conspiracies and Other Dangers
21 Florentine Histories—The Growth of Florence
22 Florentine Histories—The Age of the Medici
23 The Fate of Machiavelli’s Works
24 Was Machiavelli a Machiavellian?
Mentioning the name Niccolò Machiavelli can unleash a powerful response, even among people who have never read a word of his writings. Our language even has a word—Machiavellian—that encapsulates the images those responses conjure
An indistinct figure quietly making his way through the darkest corridors of power, hatching plots to play one rival against another
A cold-blooded political liar, ready to justify any duplicity undertaken in the name of a noble end that will ultimately justify the most malignant means
A coolly practical leader—amoral at best—willing to do whatever is necessary in a world governed not by ideas of right or wrong, but by solutions dictated by realpolitik.
But does the Machiavelli most of us think we know bear any resemblance to the Machiavelli who lived, pondered, and wrote?
According to Professor William R. Cook, a reading of Machiavelli that considers only those qualities that we today call "Machiavellian" is incomplete, and Machiavelli himself "certainly would not recognize" such sinister interpretations or caricatures of his writings and beliefs. Indeed, The Prince—on the pages of which so much of this image was built—was not even published in his lifetime.
In the 24 lectures that make up Machiavelli in Context, Professor Cook offers the opportunity to meet an extraordinarily thoughtful and sincere student of history and its lessons, and to learn that there is far more to him than can be gleaned from any reading of The Prince, no matter how thorough.
Although The Prince is the work by which most of us think we know Machiavelli, and although some have indeed called it the first and most important book of political science ever written, it was not, according to Professor Cook, either Machiavelli's most important work or the one most representative of his beliefs. Those distinctions belong, instead, to his Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, a longer work started at about the same time and which would, like The Prince, not be published until well after his death.
"Everyone who has seriously studied the works of Machiavelli agrees that he ... believed in the superiority of a republican form of government, defined as a mixed constitution with elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.
"Once we recover the context of the writing of The Prince, and analyze it along with the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy, it will be clear how The Prince can be read as a book designed to guide leaders in the creation—for Machiavelli, restoration—of republican government in Italy.
"Ultimately, Machiavelli's goal wasn't much different from ours. It was to live in a free and equal participatory society, because he believed that was the greatest way in which human beings could live and flourish."
In fact, says Professor Cook, "Machiavelli's republican thought influenced the development of institutions and values both in Europe and in America."
To present a complete and well-rounded picture of Machiavelli's ideas on how human societies should be organized and governed, Professor Cook sets aside much of Machiavelli's written output—which included the political work The Art of War, a biography, many letters, and even some plays—to focus on The Prince, the Discourses, and, more briefly, his Florentine Histories.
In doing so, Professor Cook draws on the same qualities so evident in his previous courses for The Teaching Tocqueville and the American Experience, Dante's Divine Comedy, Francis of Assisi, and St. Augustine's Confessions.
Teaching in the relaxed and informal style of those courses, Professor Cook moves easily among the different disciplines so pertinent to an understanding of Machiavelli's ideas, including history, philosophy, government, and the elements of leadership. He is unfailingly clear, always provides any definitions needed to understand the material at hand, and is always ready with a touch of wit when...”
