The Great Courses - Books that Matter - The Prince - William Landon, Ph.D.

Written by William Landon, Ph.D.
Read by William Landon, Ph.D.
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Do the ends justify the means? Should leaders be feared or loved? Can dictators give rise to democracy? Should rulers have morals or wear them like a mask? Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince puts forth unsettling questions like these, whose answers redefined centuries of political wisdom. But what does it really mean to be Machiavellian?

Written in the early 1500s at the height of the Florentine Renaissance, The Prince is well known to most of us as a manual for political corruption and a symbol of the underlying dark heart of politics. But to read Machiavelli’s slim volume only in this way is merely to scratch the surface of how groundbreaking a book it is; how it shattered the old classical approach to politics, replacing it with something grittier and, in some ways, better suited to the ruthlessness of the dawning modern age.

A compelling and multifaceted document, The Prince has gone on to shape subsequent centuries of Western civilization. Its controversial (and complex) views on power, leadership, ethics, and virtue are still with us. But The Prince is also a work filled with conflicting and tragic ironies, and it was written by a man who, throughout his own political career, failed to live up to the advice he put forth. Such complexities make it all the more important to have a complete understanding of what The Prince is really about, what it says (and doesn’t say) about political power, and why it ranks as a book that matters to all of us.

Delivered by renowned Machiavelli scholar William Landon, Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of History and Geography of Northern Kentucky University, the 24 lectures of Books That Matter: The Princeare more than just a close reading of one of the great books of Western history. They’re a revealing investigation of the historical context of Machiavelli’s philosophical views, his tumultuous relationship with Florentine politics, his reception by his contemporaries and by 20th-century scholars, and his lasting influence on everyone from William Shakespeare to Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini. For those who’ve already read The Prince, prepare to engage with the text on a deeper level than ever before. And for those who’ve always wanted to read this important book, this is your introduction to one man’s revolutionary beliefs about achieving—and maintaining—power.

Plunge into Machiavelli’s Life and Times

The Prince was not written in a vacuum. Rather, it’s a fascinating piece of political writing that was clearly shaped and informed by the world in which it was produced. Going beyond the commonly held vision of Renaissance Italy as a place of creative genius and unparalleled beauty, Books That Matter: The Prince reveals the drama and terror of Machiavelli’s life and world.

Machiavelli and Florence: During Machiavelli’s time, Italy wasn’t a unified nation but instead a conglomeration of city-states, each with its own form of government, language, culture, and economy. So Machiavelli didn’t see himself as “Italian” but rather as “Florentine.” And his location in Florence put him at the birthplace of the Renaissance, surrounded by the re-emergent Greco-Roman ideas that he would later upend when writing The Prince.
Machiavelli and the Medici: In November 1512, after the powerful Medici family returned to reclaim their rule of Florence, Machiavelli was sent into exile. Yet the Medici would also be his main reason for penning The Prince. The entire work was written to advise the Medici masters (specifically the young Lorenzo de’ Medici) on how best to run their new government; in the process, Machiavelli hoped to gain reentry to the Florentine state and a position of influence.
Machiavelli and the Borgias: Machiavelli’s experiences in the court of the infamous Cesare Borgia from 1502 to 1503 were fundamental to some of the most controversial ideas in The Prince. According to Professor Landon, Machiavelli was mesmerized by Cesare Borgia’s ability to maintain a carefully constructed persona that hid his true character: that of “a murderous liar, a charismatic cheat, and a villainous fraud.” In short, he was Machiavelli’s ideal prince.

You’ll also learn about the inner workings of Florence’s patronage system, the relationship between the papacy and political power, Florence’s international conflicts, and the creation of citizen militias—one of Machiavelli’s most successful political achievements.

Discover New Ways to Read The Prince

Throughout
Books That Matter: The Prince

, you’ll dive deep into the work’s most important chapters to survey their main insights; read between the lines to uncover hidden meanings, inspirations, and ironies; learn how scholars have debated their historical inspiration and importance; and discover the author’s sometimes beautiful language and startling imagery.

Dedicatory letter: The Prince opens with a dedicatory letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici. In it, Machiavelli presents himself to the young prince as a tutor in the affairs of the Florentine state. As you’ll learn, it’s an audacious and awe-inspiring dedication that also places The Prince in the long-tradition of “mirrors for princes,” or advice books aimed at educating young rulers.
Chapter Seven: Titled “Of new princedoms acquired by Fortune and the aid of others,” this chapter is one of the most infamous in the entire book. By focusing on the ruthless exploits of the Borgias (specifically Pope Alexander and Cesare Borgia), Machiavelli ended up solidifying the influential family’s infamy right down to the present day.
Chapter Fifteen: You’ll learn how to read this chapter, “Of the qualities in respect of which men, and most of all princes, are praised or blamed,” as a powerful rebuke against the political advice of Seneca. In effect, what Machiavelli does in this chapter is throw away the most widely accepted forms of pagan and Christian ethics, advising princes that they should forget about trying to change the world for the better.
Chapter Twenty-Six: The final chapter of The Prince, filled with sweeping emotion, hammers home how Machiavelli’s ideal prince can liberate Italy from any foreign (“barbarian”) influence. But the chapter’s unique style has also led to some controversy, with scholars debating when exactly the chapter was written and added to subsequent copies of the book.

As you read between the lines of these and other memorable portions of The Prince, you’ll also probe some intriguing questions about the book’s origins, ideas, contradictions, and legacies.

Was The Prince meant to be taken seriously, or is it just a cunning piece of satire?
Who was responsible for rescuing The Prince from the brink of obscurity?
How did Machiavelli redefine the meanings of “virtue” and “patriotism”?

Get Two Decades of Research in One Great Course

With these lectures, you’re in the hands of a master scholar who’s devoted twenty years of his career to examining Machiavelli’s masterwork. Professor Landon transforms this slim volume into a compendium of history, philosophy, and literature that will have you rethinking your preconceived ideas about what it means to be a leader in a complex world.

“The ideas Machiavelli put forth are as novel as they are appalling,” he says. “But I think in the contemporary age, the many truths he shared are worthy of remembering and, yes, even celebrating.”

Bringing together two decades of tireless research into Machiavelli’s infamous “little book,”
Books That Matter: The Prince

is your guide to a powerful piece of writing that throws more than 2,000 years of political, religious, and ethical thought straight out the window.