The Prince

When Lorenzo de Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria, Niccolo Machiavelli, which set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. Suddenly finding himself without a job after 14 years of patriotic service, Machiavelli set a precedent for many a politician to come—by becoming a pundit and commentator through one of the only means available to him at the time: writing a book. In The Prince, Machiavelli set forth the then-revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena. He asserted that it is, "often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state."