Political Writings of Friedrich Nietzsche is an anthology that gathers together, for the first time, the political commentary and writings found throughout Nietzsche's corpus. Included is an historical introduction which demonstrates that Nietzsche was an observer of and responded to the political events which defined the Bismarckian era.

In this exciting new study, Don Dombowsky proposes that the foundation of Nietzsche's political thought is the aristocratic liberal critique of democratic society. But he claims that Nietzsche radicalizes this critique through a Machiavellian conversion, based on a reading of "The Prince," adapting Machiavellian "virtbliog-- "(the shaping capacity of the legislator), and immoralism (the techniques applied in political rule), and that, consequently, Nietzsche is better understood in relation to the political ideology of the neo-Machiavellian elite theorists of his own generation.

This anthology brings together for the first time selections of Nietzsche's political commentary found throughout his corpus, including some never before translated writings from his youth. The texts were carefully chosen to highlight Nietzsche's political views and arranged chronologically to allow the reader to trace the development of Nietzsche's political thought from his youth to his final writings of 1888. In their introduction and prefaces, Frank Cameron and Don Dombowsky insightfully demonstrate that Nietzsche was an observer of and responded to the political events which shaped the Bismarckian era. In the past two decades Nietzsche's political thought has received increasing attention, yet only rarely has there been any attempt to situate it historically. This anthology thus provides an essential resource for understanding Nietzsche's political ideas as they were stirred by the conflicts of this turbulent era.

In this exciting new study, Don Dombowsky proposes that the foundation of Nietzsche's political thought is the aristocratic liberal critique of democratic society. But he claims that Nietzsche radicalizes this critique through a Machiavellian conversion, based on a reading of The Prince , adapting Machiavellian virtu (the shaping capacity of the legislator), and immoralism (the techniques applied in political rule), and that, consequently, Nietzsche is better understood in relation to the political ideology of the neo-Machiavellian elite theorists of his own generation.