Overview

Niccolo Machiavelli is misunderstood, argues Jonathan Powell in his twenty-first-century reworking of the Italian philosopher s influential masterpiece, The Prince. Taking the lessons Machiavelli derived from his experience as an official in fifteenth-century Florence, Powell shows how these lessons can still apply today. Illustrating each of Machiavelli s maxims with a description of events that occurred during Tony Blair s time as Prime Minister, The New Machiavelli is designed to be The Prince for modern times. Tony Blair s Chief of Staff from 1994 2007, Jonathan Powell recounts the inside story of that period drawing on his own unpublished diaries. He tackles the critics of Blair s sofa government and gives a frank account of the intimate details of the internal political rows, the failure to join the Euro or hold a referendum on the European constitution, the struggle with the hauliers strike and the foot-and-mouth outbreak that postponed the 2001 election, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland, the relations with Clinton, Bush and Chirac, thebanning of fox-hunting, the triumphs and failures of spin and the sc

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9781847921222

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Reviews

It's a quirky, thoughtful take on the impact of The Prince on modern politics. <br> -- Anne McElvoy , New Statesman<br><br> A gloriously indiscreet political memoir... From a unique vantage point he gives brilliantly observed and witty accounts of the vanity of modern European princes... The merit of Powell's memoir is precisely that it lacks the intrusive ego of the big politician. <br>--Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times<br> <br> The reader of this elegant little work will learn more about the workings of the new Labour court than he will from many weightier volumes, including perhaps that of the Prince himself, Tony Blair. <br>-- Review

Author Information

After studying history at Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania, Jonathan Powell worked for the BBC and Granada TV before joining the Foreign Office in 1979. In 1994 Mr Blair, then Leader of the Opposition, poached him to join his `kitchen cabinet' as his Chief of Staff. When Labour achieved its landslide victory in 1997 Powell was at the heart of the Downing Street machine. He was the only senior member of staff to remain at Blair's side throughout his time at the top of British politics. He has always maintained a low profile and has never before told his story.

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