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In William Amelias article he gives us a little background into Machiavelli’s “The Prince” and his life. He explains how this piece of work came to be after the collapse of Machiavelli’s career. This article on the guide to politics and maintaining power is a very good resource for this course.
In the beginning of the article, Amelia tells us of how “The Prince” even came to be written. Machiavelli had wrote it for Lorenzo de Medici, the most powerful man in Florence. Lorenzo was also the person that had exiled Machiavelli. On the cover of “The Prince” Machiavelli cleverly wrote “Take this little gift, in the spirit I send it, and if you read it diligently you will discover in it my urgent wish that you reach the eminence that fortune and your other great qualities promise you”.(amelia) Amelia believed that Machiavelli intended the piece to be a sort of application for work. In my opinion it was a form of bribery to get back into politics.
Machiavelli’s “The Prince” political theories were considered “radical and scandalous for its time” (Amelia). During Machiavllieiss
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As political theory it was scandalous and radical for its time. The book dismisses the then-commonplace view that there is a special connect between moral goodness and legitimate authority -- that, as one observer put it: "Rulers did well when they did good. When they were virtuous and moral they were, in turn, obeyed and respected." In "The Prince," Machiavelli urged rulers not to follow convention, but to understand fully the nature of the people, to sense change and move with the times, to see the new politics, the nuovi modi et ordini -- the new order -- both global and local. It is the book's principle lesson and sounds familiar, doesn't it?

I found this particular part of the article very interesting. Amelia goes on to say that Machiavelli’s masterpiece “The Prince” was considered by some to be a handbook for tyrants. Amelia...