In the following essay, Mansfield provides an overview of The Prince, describing the work as "the most famous book on politics when politics is thought to be earned on for its own sake, unlimited by anything above it."

Anyone who picks up Machiavelh's The Prince holds in his hands the most famous book on politics ever written. Its closest rival might be Plato's Republic, but that book discusses politics in the context of things above politics, and politics turns out to have a limited and subordinate place In The Prince Machiavelli also discusses politics in relation to things outside politics, as we shall see, but his conclusion is very different. Politics according to him is not limited by things above it, and things normally taken to be outside politics— the "givers" in any political situation—turn out to be much more under the control of politics than...