About this title: Pat Chapman runs the highly successful Curry Club in England and is the author of 18 books(including The Curry Club 250 Favourite Curries and Accompaniments) which have sold more than 1 Million copies.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Date Published: 8-1-01
ISBN-13:9780801487507ISBN:0801487501
Description: FINE. Crisp, clean, unread paperback with light to moderate shelfwear/edgewear to the cover and a "non-returnable" stamp to one edge-Nice! ! 0.95 lbs. read more
Edition: First Issue In This Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: J.M. Dent & Sons Limited, London
Description: Very Good. Used book. No date of publication. Ex-school library book with labels. Text very clean. Embossed hard cover displays a few signs of use. This book contains a translation of the 'Cyropaedia' which is a political romance, describing the education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over his admiring and willing subjects. A nice copy. 305 pages. read more
Edition: Presumed First Edition
Binding: Cloth-Hardcover
Publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York
Date Published: 1913
Description: Fine. No Jacket. Ex-Library. 16mo-over 5¾"-6¾" tall. Binding tight & intact-very little, if any shelf wear. Ex-library with minimal labels/stamps. Pages clean & intact. Looks as if book was never taken off shelf. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780801487507ISBN:0801487501
Description: Acceptable. Former Library Book and/or book has writing/highlighting * If you can deal with the writing/markings, this is a great deal! * read more
Description: Good. 0801487501 Good condition. May have some markings & or shelfwear. All pages intact. Used items may not include extras such as infotrac, CD or other web access codes. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780801487507ISBN:0801487501
Description: Paperback, ex-library, with usual stamps and markings, in good all round condition. Ships within 24 hours., 500grams, ISBN: 0801487501. read more
Description: New. We are no longer able to guarantee delivery by Christmas. Please note that deliveries to addresses in the UK and Europe will be in 4-14 business days. Other countries should refer to Alibris standard times. ISBN10: 0801438187. read more
Description: Good. 0801438187 Good condition. May have some markings & or shelfwear. All pages intact. Used items may not include extras such as infotrac, CD or other web access codes. read more
"At some point in the past six months, I read a passing reference to Cyrus in a book review as having been favorable noted by Machiavelli. No matter, I noted it long enough to park in my Amazon shopping cart until it could come home. Eventually when I re-read The Prince, I may come back and include that reference here.
I wasn't impressed. As I get older and hopefully wiser, I have less and less patience with reading the ancients. Yes, humans are murderous and conniving, gracious and noble, sometimes all at once. However, every fifth grader should know more than an Aristotle or Augustine, literally. Xenophon is ever and finally ignorant of gravity, or genes, or germs just to stick with the letter 'g'. Whatever insights into human nature the ancients gained and can share with us are forever leavened with fatal misunderstandings of the world, attributable to ill humors, the gods, and fates instead of electrons and Brownian motion.
According to Xenophon, writing a hundred years after his reign, in the 5th century BC, Prince Cyrus grew up in a semi-Platonic society. The best and brightest (or at least the children of the well-to-do) were kept apart and drilled hours a day on their way to becoming full citizens, or peers. The King raised an army to answer the call of an ally, and chose his son Cyrus to lead. Cyrus first instructed the peers take several commoners under their wings to whip into shape for the campaign. Cyrus would cajole, bribe, and ferociously fight his way to uniting the middle east while giving all credit to the gods and fates and sacrifices - presumable goats I guess, not prisoners. The text never really states what is being sacrificed. Cyrus also democratically shared the spoils of his campaign with his troops, increasing their loyalty and determination.
Here then is an ancient after Machiavelli's lead heart. He carefully and completely attributed his meticulously planned successes to the whims of fate and the beneficence of the gods, and then grew into the comforts of his office until death, at which point his kingdom dissolved into the various factions he had united. Xenophon thought this a sterling example. Men with little will risk it to gain everything. A politician who can subvert the greed of others, thus multiplying his own, wins all.
This can only be seen as noteworthy if contrasted with the essentialist absurdities of Plato. A shorter review might be that Thrasymachus was right and Socrates wrong. We will not succeed in a given fight if we are the most gracious or morally correct, but instead only if the most powerful. Strategic underdogs can win tactical victories through dash and daring but only because they won the field between the two competitors on the given day, not because they possessed the purest form of dash and dare.
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