Niccolò Machiavelli
2 books
- You get Machiavelli thinking through how republics preserve liberty, using Rome’s tribunes, public conflict, and political institutions as his working examples. It’s dense and sometimes repetitive rather than easy reading, but rewarding if you enjoy watching a sharp, unsentimental mind test political ideals against history.
- It reads less like philosophy and more like a sharp coworker leveling with you about how power actually works, with Cesare Borgia as the case study. Short, blunt, weirdly funny in places.