A Main Theme of Contemporary Sociological Analysis: Its Achievements and Limitations

N THE PREFACE to his Istorie Fiorentine, Niccolo Machiavelli tells how his original intentions in planning this work had been altered by his realization that, whereas the existent histories of Florence were most diligent in their descriptions of that city's external relations and in particular of its wars, they had glossed over its 'civil discords and internal dissensions', as if these matters might embarrass or bore the reader. On the contrary, says Machiavelli, 'if any lesson is useful to the citizens who govern republics, it is that which demonstrates the causes of the hatreds and dissensions in the republic, so that, having learned wisdom from the perils experienced by others, they may maintain themselves united'.