Machiavelli in America

Thomas Block, "Machiavelli in America"
English | 2014 | ISBN: 1628940662, 1628940670 | PDF | pages: 214 | 0.8 mb
'Machiavelli in America' traces the influence of the Florentine thinker on American politics, from the Founders (c. 1770s) through today's rough-and-tumble political panorama. Machiavelli's ideas have been re-interpreted internationally as 'real-politik.' He proposed that the 'ends justify the means,' and that any manner of fraud, violence or corruption must be utilized in attaining and retaining power. People, he assured us, are so mean, small and selfish that they will only act under necessity, so the successful prince must force the population, through whatever means necessary, to follow his dictates. He maintained that the most pwerful form of fraud was the appearance of religiosity and said that the successful prince must hold no art higher than that of war.