Good translation, interesting history --

books:


	• The Art of War Niccolò Machiavelli Da Capo Press, 2001 - 247 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

True art of war

When people think of war, they generally think of battles and strategies. Though of course very important parts of war, there are many other parts, just as important. Logistics, morale, intelligence and others.

With this book Machiavelli brought science back into warfare and helped Europe cross from medieval warfare to modern war. Though there are some mistakes in predictions, it is the details to "unimportant matters" like logistics that would make sure this book rightfully would be found on the shelf of any good military commander for centuries.

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The Italian Sun Tzu

If warrior culture is your interest, rather than becoming a sycophant of the Eastern warrior cultures, pair this with George Bird Grinnel's Fighting Cheynne, and you will not only enrich your understanding, but bring it home.

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The Art of War

Great insight into human behavior never changes no matter how much time passes.

A Great First-Half

Machiavelli's "The Art of War" is only half the story. To fully understand the point and purpose of these conversations, you must read Machiavelli's other and more important book: "The Prince". Both books are exercises in the logic extending from the premise that the ends justify the means.

You should either obtain both books or the new volume: "The Art of War & The Prince by Machiavelli - Special Edition" which combines both books into one. Both books are important in the history of philosophy, logic, politics and strategy. Reading both helps put them in their proper context.

Machiavelli's vision was always clear that success is all that is important. His detailed insights on the methods and means for achieving success, however clever and convoluted, were always right to the main point: To the victor there is fame and glory and to the loser there is humiliation and oblivion.

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Good translation, interesting history --

-- but I found Macchiavelli's content frankly disappointing. The translation is modern and readable, I have no problem with that. The original was centuries behind Sun Tzu's book of the same name, even though Sun Tzu wrote around 500BC, 2000 years before Macchiavelli. Macchiavelli gives a bit of advice about soldierly temperament and training. There's also a brief checklist, just two pages, of strategic advice, near the end of the book. That's all that really has lasting value.

The bulk of the text is taken up with the right way to position each kind of soldier and arm, rank and file, in marching order. Basically, these were detailed directions for a military parade, suited to the set-piece wars of the time, as much pageant as combat. He also goes on about the right kinds of pennants, flags, and colors to use, proper military music, how to make camp, and proper pillaging and distribution of booty.

Directions on how to make camp are subject to errors, though: a measurement 1360 feet long, minus 100 feet at each end, is said to leave a row 1260 feet long rather than 1160 - perhaps an error introduced by the translator, but I tend to think not. He also takes the "reduction" and sacking of conquered towns for granted. I think Master Sun was a bit more merciful (or prgamatic), on the grounds that the wealth of newly annexed parts of the kingdom should be preserved, and the citizens kept happy enough for easy rule. With a startling lack of foresight, Macchiavelli dismisses serious use of artillery in pitched battles. Instead, he falls back on strategies of the Greeks and Romans, 1000 to 2000 years old even when he wrote. Sun Tzu's warfare had a much more modern look to it, including hit-and-run tactics that the West barely understood until the American revolution.

The quality of the translation worth four or five stars, partly because of helpful notes and diagrams. It's the original work that I found weak.

//wiredweird

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Voltaire said, "Machiavelli taught Europe the art of war; it had long been practiced, without being known." For Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), war was war, and victory the supreme aim to which all other considerations must be subordinated. The Art of War is far from an anachronism?its pages outline fundamental questions that theorists of war continue to examine today, making it essential reading for any student of military history, strategy, or theory. Machiavelli believed The Art of War to be his most important work.

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