[Chad C. Mulligan]

It can be hard going though.....

It certainly is. The translations from Machiavelli's Italian are especially difficult. I sometimes spend 2-3 minutes trying to parse one of those long, long sentences. And occasionally replacing a translator's word with one that makes a clause make sense to this 21sr century reader. Still, it's worth it.

For them as don't know, Machiavelli is the founding father of political science, and The Prince is an observation of reality, not an instruction manual as so many believe.

[Rockingham]

As much as Machiavelli is denounced, his larger purpose was worthy and was accomplished over time: explaining how politics works so that ordinary citizens could govern themselves. The Federalist Papers and Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention are both grounded in a realistic view of human nature and politics. And without Machiavelli, the American experiment might never have begun.