View a FREE sample

Prologue

• Machiavelli lost his post at the chancellery of Florence when the Medici family returned to power.

• He presents his book, THE PRINCE, to Lorenzo de Medici in the hope of securing a place in the new government.

• Machiavelli plays up his knowledge of history and his lifetime of government service as his credentials for writing the book.

Chapter 1

• Machiavelli mentions that there are two types of government in his time--the dominion and the republic.

• New dominions, he says, can be broken down into two other types depending upon whether the people have been accustomed to being ruled by a prince.

Chapter 2

• Machiavelli will only deal with dominions, since he has written extensively on republics before.

• He mentions that hereditary dominions are easiest to keep because the people are familiar with the government.

• All the prince needs to do is continue the same forms his family has used...

(read more Chapter Abstracts)

This section contains 1,806 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample