Abstract
The chapter will give an overview of Guicciardini, differentiating him from Machiavelli, and connecting some of his thinking to Thucydides. It will display through quotes from the Ricordi his expertise in understanding human nature; how he appears to base much of his approach on this; his understanding of the difference between theory and practice; and the importance of taking the unplanned into account. The chapter will begin to explain how history repeats itself, but in new disguises, using the example of British-Russian relations and of the tendency of former empires to continue colonialism in different ways.
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Mallinson, W. (2021). Who Is Guicciardini?. In: Guicciardini, Geopolitics and Geohistory . Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76537-8_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76537-8_2
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