Prince

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor <i>The Prince</i> 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 <i>The Prince</i> 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.