In this short tract, Machiavelli offers guidance to the Medicis on how they could conquer and unify Italy. This book is shocking can be shocking for its ruthlessness, but Machiavelli’s strategic thought and hard-headed realism contain important lessons.
Here is the world’s most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor “The Prince” even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince…a king…or even a president. When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic…”The Prince” has become essential reading for every student of government, and is the ultimate book on power politics.