History’s Most Misunderstood Thinker

The truth about Machiavelli...

Niccolò Machiavelli is one of those rare figures who has become more of a myth than a man. A diplomat and political theorist in Renaissance Florence, he wrote one of the most notorious books in political history: The Prince.

To most people, mention of The Prince conjures up images of ruthless manipulation. The term "Machiavellian" is shorthand for cold, calculated evil, and Machiavelli’s philosophy is reduced to little more than "the ends justify the means" — a phrase he never actually wrote. Nevertheless, the Florentine philosopher remains popular culture’s patron saint of schemers and tyrants.

But it wasn’t always this way.

Over the past five centuries, Machiavelli has been embraced by thinkers across the political spectrum, with philosophers, revolutionaries, and political theorists of conflicting convictions all claiming him as their own. Thinkers as varied as Nietzsche, Strauss, Rousseau, Gramsci, Hegel, and Montesquieu each saw something different in Machiavelli’s work.

Some believed he was defending tyranny, others thought he was protecting liberty, and still others believed he was doing both at once.

Today we examine four different interpretations of Machiavelli’s work to see how he’s been used to justify different political theories, both in ages past and in our modern day. We’ll begin with the “classic” interpretations, and end with the counterintuitive.

Each reading offers a window into how Machiavelli is understood — but also, into how political reality itself can shift depending on who’s doing the reading…

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Who Was Machiavelli?

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in 1469 in Florence, a city-state that called itself a republic, but which was often dominated by powerful families like the Medici. As a young man, he entered public service and rose to become a senior diplomat and secretary during a period when the Medici were exiled from the city.

His career gave him firsthand experience with the brutal realities of power. He negotiated with kings, popes, and mercenary leaders. He saw how quickly alliances dissolved, how easily promises were broken, and how often ideals were sacrificed to expediency.

But Machiavelli’s fortunes collapsed in 1512 when the Medici returned to Florence and reclaimed power. He was dismissed from office, accused of conspiring against the new regime (a not wholly unfounded claim), imprisoned, and subjected to torture by strappado — a painful method of suspension by the arms. After weeks in jail, he was released under a general amnesty and retreated to a small estate outside Florence.

It was there, in exile and disgrace, that he wrote The Prince, Discourses on Livy, and The Art of War.

At the time of his death in 1527, Machiavelli was remembered by both Medici loyalists and republicans as a suspicious, dangerous mind. Yet even then, his works defied easy classification. They were full of contradictions, ambiguities, and provocations — the first hints that Machiavelli's true loyalties might have been more complicated than they first appeared…

Nietzsche & Power

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) came to Machiavelli centuries later, but he immediately recognized a kindred spirit. Nietzsche, the German philosopher known for his critiques of morality, religion, and herd thinking, believed that politics — like life itself — was ultimately a contest of wills.

Where others condemned Machiavelli as cynical, Nietzsche admired his clarity. He saw Machiavelli not as a promoter of evil, but as a liberator from comforting illusions. In Machiavelli’s world, success demands strength, foresight, and audacity. Power is not inherently wicked, it is simply the reality beneath all political structures.

Nietzsche read The Prince as a fearless description of how politics truly works, stripped of moral pretense. He admired Machiavelli’s refusal to dress up harsh truths in the language of virtue. In this sense, Machiavelli’s ruler anticipates Nietzsche’s Übermensch — someone who shapes reality rather than submits to inherited norms.

In Nietzsche’s hands, Machiavelli becomes almost heroic — a man willing to face the chaotic, brutal nature of human life without flinching. Rather than mourn the collapse of traditional virtue, Nietzsche embraced it as a necessary clearing of the ground.

But as fervently as Nietzsche championed Machiavelli, not everyone shared his enthusiasm. Some of the greatest minds of Western thought saw him as something else entirely…