The Discourses (Machiavelli)

Machiavelli’s commentary on the first ten books of Livy, written around 1517 and published posthumously in 1531. Where The Prince advises a single ruler, the Discourses defends the republic: a mixed constitution, an armed citizenry rather than mercenaries, the periodic return of a state to its founding principles, and — most against the grain — the argument that the conflict between the plebs and the nobles was not Rome’s weakness but the source of its liberty and its laws.

Why it’s on the list: It sits in the curriculum’s Renaissance and Enlightenment section, the hinge between the classical Greeks and the American experiment — and it is the republican half of Machiavelli, read here alongside The Prince, which appears two entries above it on the same list.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Renaissance and Enlightenment Political Thought. The full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Rome — the republic the book is a commentary on.
• Politics — the subject.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.