Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince is the Bible of realpolitik, a tough-minded, pragmatic handbook on how power really works, and how to hold on to it in a dangerous world. How can a leader be strong? Is it better to be feared than loved? This work of a fifteenth-century Florentine diplomat is still read today for its shrewd political lessons.

A new series of beautiful hardcover nonfiction classics, with covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith World-changing ideas meet eye-catching design: the best titles of the extraordinarily successful Great Ideas series are now packaged in Coralie Bickford-Smith’s distinctive, award-winning covers. Whether on a well-curated shelf or in your back pocket, these timeless works of philosophical, political, and psychological thought are absolute musthaves for book collectors as well as design enthusiasts.