Machiavelli, Leonardo, and the Science of Power [Paperback]

“Roger Masters has aroused debate by arguing that Leonardo influenced Machiavelli’s thinking in a way that ultimately sparked the development of modern industrial society.” —The New York Times

“Roger Masters finds that the two men of genius collaborated on a Florentine project to divert the course of the river Arno and leave rival Pisa without water. Masters postulates, with good reason, that two such aggressively innovative thinkers must have exchanged more than their views on water channels, and suggests provocatively that Machiavelli’s notoriously objective analysis of power shows traces of Leonardo’s science.” —The New York Review of Books

“In this provocative interdisciplinary study, Masters offers a new interpretation of Machiavelli which helps us understand his ambiguous relation to modern political science.” —The Review of Politics

“Here is a book with which to plunge into a corner of the Renaissance while keeping that period's relevance to modern life and thought squarely at the center of attention. . . . This book is very much worth reading.”  —The Jerusalem Post

Roger D. Masters is Nelson A. Rockefeller Professorof Government, Emeritus, at Dartmouth College. He published 16 books and is the author of over 125 scholarly articles. His most recent books includeThe Neurotransmitter Revolution: Serotonin, Social Behavior and LawandBeyond Relativism: Science and Human Values.