Exploring Machiavelli's The Prince and Discourses on Livy

In the 16th century, the Vatican designated <The Prince>, written by the Florentine political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, as a banned book. Five centuries later, <The Prince> has secured its place as an essential reading on university syllabi worldwide, including at Harvard University. Famously studied by notorious dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini, what kind of book is <The Prince>? If the daunting title has kept you from reading it until now, this is your chance! Quentin Skinner, a leading British intellectual historian renowned globally for his studies on Machiavelli, will deliver a lecture titled <A in-depth Study Machiavelli>

And it’s not just <The Prince>. Skinner will also delve into <Discourses on Livy>, the work where Machiavelli’s true republican political philosophy comes to light.

"Many democratic states are under threat—from oligarchies, extreme wealth concentration, and corruption in political processes. These are precisely the questions Machiavelli raises in his writings. To understand not just the Renaissance, but our modern world, we must read Discourses on Livy now," Skinner explains.

 What insights can 21st-century developed nations, such as Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and South Korea—countries facing crises of leadership—gain from <The Prince>? And what wisdom can global democracies, increasingly under grave threat, discover in <Discourses on Livy>? Let us explore these questions through Quentin Skinner’s <A in-depth Study Machiavelli>