In Felix Gilbert's skilled analysis, the figures of Niccolo Machiavelli, whose writing changed the way people think about politics, and Francesco Guicciardini,

The question of order inspired two of the greatest political thinkers of the Renaissance--Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini, whose major works on

Original scholarly essays by leading philosophers, which bring to life Machiavelli’s lengthiest and most challenging work.

This is the first translation into English of Guicciardini's Dialogue on the Government of Florence. Written in the early 1520s by the author of the famous Hist

Reconstructs the origins of the idea that social conflict, and not concord, makes political communities powerful.