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Machiavelli: Civil War
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"Christopher Lynch's new translation of Machiavelli's Art of War is a much-needed corrective to existing translations and to the less than rigorous analysis of this historically important text by previous commentators. It has the potential of becoming the standard English version of an important historical document."—Carnes Lord, Naval War College
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These evil actions are not, with rare exceptions, proper to the leaders of a good state, who Machiavelli charges with strict observance of the laws, and moderate behavior in all things. The evil actions are required in three distinct circumstances: when constituting a state in the first place; when removing an evil, tyrannical regime; and when rescuing a state that has sunken into the mire of corruption. These are the circumstances that correspond to Machiavelli's primal scream that if the survival of the nation is at stake, nothing, no moral stricture, no ethical restraint, may be permitted to prevent men of valour from taking every possible step to prevent its destruction. In these circumstances, to do good--to play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, to adhere strictly to the Sermon on the Mount--is to guarantee the triumph of evil. Machiavelli expands on the earlier paradox: just as the quest for peace at any price invites war, and worse than war (defeat and domination by evil), so there are times when evil acts are the only way to achieve the common good.
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"Christopher Lynch has made the best and the first careful translation of Machiavelli's Art of War. With useful notes, an excellent introduction, an interpretive essay, glossary, and index, it is a treasure for readers of military history and Renaissance thought as well as for lovers of Machiavelli."—Harvey Mansfield, Harvard University
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In 1526 Machiavelli was commissioned by Pope Clement VII to inspect the fortifications of Florence. Later that year and the following year his friend and critic Francesco Guicciardini, Papal Commissary of War in Lombardy, employed him in two minor diplomatic missions. He died in Florence in June 1527, receiving the last rites of the Church that he had bitterly criticized.
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Are these censures of Machiavelli deserved? Was the Florentine diplomat and founder of modern political science as evil and depraved as these men would have him? Was Machiavelli really an impious, secular, perhaps even “pagan” viper in the very bosom of Christendom, eager to spread the curse of irreligion to Western Civilization?
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Would Machiavelli have gone to war in Iraq? My guess is that this would be a case where he’d have relied on deception, delusion, and secret deals, perhaps even with Saddam Hussein. He clearly preferred that to force, and it would be hard to argue that force was necessary, and it obviously has proven to be risky. But it’s not absolutely clear.
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