The Prince

Why it’s on the list: Machiavelli’s handbook for acquiring and keeping a state, written in 1513 during his exile from Florence and published posthumously in 1532 — the founding text of the tradition that describes power as it is rather than as it should be.

Where I heard about it

• A reply to @WillManidis — in the thread under his question “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” (June 2025) — the industry, presumably, being politics. The full set of replies is on what is the single best book… (tweet).
• Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List (March 2026), under Renaissance and Enlightenment Political Thought.
• Li Lu — on Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, under History of Western Civilization, as the omnibus The Prince and the Discourses.
• @athenaeumbc — in a stack of ~35 old books photographed by Athenaeum Book Club (October 2026) under the line “One of the hidden benefits of reading old books is that they rescue you from the arrogance of the present.” The full stack is listed on One of the hidden benefits… (tweet).

Connections

• what is the single best book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• People Over Politics — the portfolio idea this sits under.
• Marcus Aurelius — the other classical text that gets recommended in the same breath and argues the opposite way.