The Prince
Categories: Politics & Social Sciences
Written in 1513 by a Florentine official who had just been forced out of office, The Prince is a short, blunt handbook on how rulers win power and keep it. Niccolò Machiavelli set aside how leaders ought to behave and described how they actually do. His unsentimental portrait of rulers, from Roman emperors to the princes of his own day, still unsettles readers five hundred years later.
Recommended by 9 people
- Stewart Brand
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Garry Tan
- Fred Wilson
- Jared Diamond: “Machiavelli is a crystal-clear realist who understands the limits and uses of power. ... Every president (and all of us nonpoliticians as well) should read Machiavelli and incorporate his thinking.”
- Ryan Holiday
- Andrew Ross Sorkin: “it is always worth reading the ultimate philosophical classic: “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli.”
- Jocko Willink
- Shane Parrish: “I have a lot to read in my pile but after reading Blood & Beauty last week — an excellent read by the way — I was inspired to pick up this masterful work again”