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JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA, AUTHOR & EDUCATOR
  • The Books
    • MacTrump >
      • Signed/personalized copies
    • The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy >
      • Online-Only Chapters and Excerpt >
        • Online Chapter I: "Knock, Knock"
        • Excerpt - Chapter I: "Taft! Taft! Taft!"
      • Signed/personalized copies
    • License to Quill >
      • Online-Only Chapters and Excerpt >
        • Excerpt - Chapter I: "The Man Who Killed Christopher Marlowe"
      • Signed/personalized copies
    • Game of Thrones versus History: Written in Blood >
      • Excerpt: "A Machiavellian Discourse on Game of Thrones"
    • Hardboiled Horror
    • Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence
  • The Players
    • The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy >
      • The Heroes >
        • William Howard Taft
        • Robert Todd Lincoln
        • Chief Wilkie
        • Major Butt
      • The Heroines >
        • Nellie Taft
        • The Herron Ladies
        • Miss Knox
      • The Wild Cards >
        • J. P. Morgan
        • Nikola Tesla
        • Skull and Bones >
          • The Secret Page
        • Theodore Roosevelt
      • The Pocket Watch
    • License to Quill >
      • The Heroes >
        • William Shakespeare
        • Christopher Marlowe
      • The Heroines >
        • The Dark Lady
        • Lady Percy
      • The Rogues
      • Macbeth
  • The Reviews
  • The Author
    • Author Bio
    • Other Writings
    • Contact Information

EXCERPT: "A machiavellian discourse on Game of Thrones"


Are the political theories proposed five centuries ago by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), the Renaissance Florentine statesman, playwright, philosopher, and history, relevant to the kingdoms and characters in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and in HBO's Game of Thrones? . . .

Machiavelli supported his theories with examples from the lives and times of numerous historical figures, among them Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), and Pope Alexander VI (r. 1492-1503), as well as biblical, literary, and mythological figures such as Moses, Achilles, and Chiron the Centaur. Machiavelli made few distinctions between the fictional and historical figures featured in The Prince because his theories focused on fundamental human behaviors consistent throughout history and evident in humanity's most enduring heroes of lore. Since Machiavelli referenced figures like Moses and Achilles when proposing theories about the fundamental use of political power, who's to say that he--or we--can't do the same using some of the most popular characters from Game of Thrones?

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