The Art of War

A librarian once told me, with all the certainty in the world, that this book didn't exist and that I was mixing it up with Sun Tzu's. The next day I went back with my copy in hand: here's the book that doesn't exist, haha. Pure ego, I know. But it felt good.

It's the only one of Machiavelli's political treatises published while he was alive, and that alone makes me curious. It's written as a dialogue, and its central argument is that a state needs its own army, made up of citizens, instead of relying on mercenaries. Anyone who has read The Prince will recognise the same obsession: not depending on what you don't control. I'm a fan of the book for its ideas and for its history.

The biggest problem is the military technical detail of the period. Troop formations, weaponry, battle order: all of that has aged, and it's where the reading slowed down most for me. I think a lot of people give up there. The dialogue format also makes the text drag at times.

Even so, it's the same old Machiavelli, direct and pragmatic, romanticising nothing. Good for anyone who has read The Prince and wants to see where part of his logic comes from. For someone who has never read anything by him, I wouldn't start here.