Collection: Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469 to 1527, spent years as a senior official of the Florentine republic. When the Medici returned to power he was arrested, tortured and run out of the city. He wrote The Prince in 1513, in exile on a small farm, and dedicated it to the very family that had destroyed him, as his way back in. He never got back in.

Read it with that in mind and the tone makes sense. He is not recommending cruelty, he is reporting how power actually behaves when it is not being watched. The boss who smiles while cutting your shifts. The workmate angling quietly for your position. The promise broken the second you turn your back.

Five hundred years of people calling the book wicked has not made it inaccurate. He exposes the mechanism, so you see the move before it is made.