A Bluffer's Handbook to Machiavelli's The Prince

Considered the ‘Koran of the courtiers’, The Prince inspired Mussolini, and served Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell and Carlos V. It is therefore a book that has impressed Monarchs, Emperors, Dictators and a Lord Protector. It has also been denounced as the work of the Devil and Old Nick’s book has been read by Catholics and Protestants alike, with both religious factions believing it the work of the other.
Written to impress the ruling Medici, it has become the most famous job application letter in history. Machiavelli’s revolutionary work broke with the past by daring to say what scholars had only previously thought.

This brief guide then outlines the legacy and meaning of Machiavelli’s politically dangerous book. It will allow you to bluff your way in most armchair debates and save you valuable time by not having to read the whole text. Machiavelli’s work gave us the allegory of ‘the fox and the lion’ as well as the maxims ‘the end justifies the means’ and ‘it is better to be feared than loved’ thus provoking a debate that rages to this day.