Machiavelli Reinterpreted through the Neocon Lens

books:


	• Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules Are As Timely And Important Today As Five ... Michael A. Ledeen St. Martin's Griffin, 2000 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

A modern introduction to an old topic

I FOUND THE BOOK ENTERTAINING AND INTERESTING. i WENT ON TO READ THE ORGINAL "PRINCE" WHICH IN IT'S TIME ALSO MADE REFERENCE TO PAST EVENTS. THIS DOES THE SAME -- OF COURSE SOME OF THE REVIEWERS TAKE ISSUE WITH SOME OF THE FACTS -- THEY MAY BE CORRECT BUT THAT IS BESIDE THE POINT, IN THAT I USED THE BOOK AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MUCH MALIGNED MACHIAVELLI.

Machiavelli Reinterpreted through the Neocon Lens

~Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules Are As Timely And Important Today As Five Centuries Ago~ represents the neocon disciples of Leo Strauss attempt to adopt Machiavelli as their political sage. Author Michael Ledeen is a student of power politics and is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor to National Review. He studied in fascism in Italy. In this book, he lionizes the political thought of Machiavelli. So, that means lies, ruthless power plays, and all the other good stuff are a part of the neocon play book. To quote Machiavelli: "A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise." Ledeen even appeals to Lenin's example of purging the Czar's family as the kind of ruthless power play that a Machiavellian would sanction.

Ledeen encapsulated the neocon foreign policy with this Machiavellian maxim: "Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business." It should not be a surprise that Ledeen is a dyed-in-the-wool disciple of Niccolò Machiavelli. Rep. Ron Paul objected that this book was being distributed amongst Republican members of Congress and celebrated as a warrior's guide to politics. Machiavelli separated morality from politics, and established the idea that a political leader should care more about holding his political power than serving morality, truth or the people. Mussolini's maxim, "Everything inside the state, nothing outside of the state," could fairly describe the political thought of his fellow Italian Machiavelli and his hagiographic biographer Michael Ledeen.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Niccolo Machiavelli, one of the eminent minds of the Italian Renaissance, spent much of a long and active lifetime trying to determine and understand what exceptional qualities of human character-- and what surrounding elements of fortune, luck, and timing-- made great men great leaders successful in war and peace.

In perhaps the liveliest book on Machiavelli in years, Michael A. Ledeen measures contemporary movers and doers against the timeless standards established by the great Renaissance writer. Titans of statecraft (Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton); business and finance (Bill Gates); Wall Street and investing (Warren Buffett); the military (Colin Powell), and sports (Michael Jordan) are judged by Machiavelli's precepts on leadership and the proper use of power. The result is a wide-ranging and scintillating study that illuminates the thoughts of the Renaissance master and the actions of today's truly towering figures as well as the character-challenged pretenders to greatness.

Here is an exceptional book on Machiavelli and his ultra-realistic exploration of human nature-- then and now.

for more information click here