Machiavelli Goes to the Movies
eBook - ePub

Machiavelli Goes to the Movies

Understanding The Prince through Television and Film

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Machiavelli Goes to the Movies

Understanding The Prince through Television and Film

About this book

Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince remains an influential book more than five centuries after he wrote his timeless classic. However, the political philosophy expressed by Machiavelli in his tome is often misunderstood. Although he thought humans to be rational, self-interested creatures, and even though he proposed an approach to politics in which the ends justify the means, Machiavelli was not, as some have argued, simply "a teacher of evil." The Prince's many ancient and medieval examples, while relevant to sixteenth century readers, are lost on most of today's students of Machiavelli. Examples from modern films and television programs, which are more familiar and understandable to contemporary readers, provide a better way to accurately teach Machiavelli's lessons. Indeed, modern media, such as Breaking Bad, The Godfather, The Walking Dead, Charlie Wilson's War, House of Cards, Argo, and The Departed, are replete with illustrations that teach Machiavelli's critical principles, including the need to caress or annihilate, learning "how not to be good," why it is better to be feared than loved, and how to act as both the lion and the fox. Modern media are used in this book to exemplify the tactics Machiavelli advocated and to comprehensively demonstrate that Machiavelli intended for government actors and those exercising power in other contexts to fight for a greater good and strive to achieve glory.

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Yes, you can access Machiavelli Goes to the Movies by Eric T. Kasper,Troy Kozma in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & European Renaissance History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. Introduction
  4. Studying and Using History
  5. Caress or Annihilate When Taking Power
  6. Nip Political Problems in the Bud
  7. People Accustomed to Freedom Will Seek It Again
  8. The Difficulties of Being a Reformer and the Importance of Having Arms
  9. Bribery and Dirty Work
  10. The Problems of Being in Charge without Prior Experience
  11. The Use of Cruelty
  12. Reliance on the People
  13. Rally ‘Round the Flag
  14. Power Can Be Exercised in Any Institution
  15. Keep Your Own Army and Prepare It for War
  16. Vices versus Virtues and Learning Not to Be Good
  17. Miserliness is Better than Liberality
  18. It is Better to Be Feared than Loved
  19. Deception
  20. The Lion and the Fox
  21. Pick a Side and Stick to Your Decisions in Politics
  22. The Need for Both Military and Popular Support
  23. Honor Those with Talent and Hold Festivals
  24. Have Few Trusted Advisors and Give Them Wealth to Remain Loyal
  25. Virtue Versus Fortune
  26. Conclusions
  27. Bibliography
  28. Index
  29. About the Authors