The Prince

For more than four hundred years, The Prince has been the basic handbook of politics, statemanship, and power. Written by a Florentine nobleman whose name has become a synonym for crafty plotting, this fascinating document is as pertinent today as when it first appeared. After a lifetime of winning and losing at the game of politics, Machiavelli set down for all time its ageless rules and moves in this highly readable formula for anyone who seeks power. At a time before modern democracy, Machiavelly was less concerned with right and wrong than with currying favor with the ruling Medicis, and his work came to be thought of as a blueprint for dictators.

Witty, informative, and devilishy shrewd, The Prince has long been required reading for those interested in politics and power, and it has long since become one of the world's most significant books.

• Introduction

1. The Various Kinds of Government and the Ways By Which They Are Established
2. Of Hereditary Monarchies
3. Of Mixed Monarchies
4. Why the Kingdom of Darius, Occupied by Alexander, Did Not Rebel Against the Succesors of the Latter After His Death
5. The Way to Govern Cities or Dominions That, Previous to Being Occupied, Lived Under Their Own Laws
6. Of New Dominions Which Have Been Acquired By One's Own Arms and Ability
7. Of New Dominions Acquired By the Power of Others or By Fortune
8. Of Those Who Have Attained the Position of Prince by Villainy
9. Of the Civic Principality
10. How the Strength of All States Should Be Measured
11. Of Ecclesiastical Principalities
12. The Different Kinds of Militia and Mercenary Soldiers
13. Of Auxiliary, Mixed, and Native Troops
14. The Duties of a Prince With Regard to the Militia
15. Of the Things for Which Men, and Especially Princes, Are Praised or Blamed
16. Of Liberality and Niggardliness
17. Of Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved or Feared
18. In What Way Princes Must Keep Faith
19. That We Must Avoid Being Despised and Hated
20. Whether Fortresses and Other Things Which Princes Often Contrive Are Useful or Injurious
21. How a Prince Must Act in Order to Gain Reputation
22. Of the Secretaies of Princes
23. How Flatterers Must Be Shunned
24. Why the Princes of Italy Have Lost Their States
25. How Much Fortune Can Do in Human Affairs and How It May Be Opposed
26. Exhortation to Liberate Italy From the Barbarians

• Afterword

What can you say? This is a classical book, if not the classical book!

You can read it in two hours, but you'll spend the rest of your life trying to master it! And you will get back to it, time and time again…

Regardless if you want to be a powerplayer/politician or avoid them, you need to have read this book, or you're out of your depth. To be frank, if you don't read this, you're just stupid.