The Prince

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 . . . 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.  In The Prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast fox and lion.  Today this small sixteenth-century masterpiece has become essential reading for every student of government and is the ultimate book on power politics.