Monarchism

In the history of Western political thought, Machiavelli single-handedly launched a revolution with a pen as a sword. This revolution redefines "virtue", uses instrumental rationality to dissect politics, and brutally subverts the classical humanistic moral concept. This small book called "On the Monarch" was originally the work of the author Gan Yehoumen's confession of sincerity, but fate fiddled with it, and unintentionally became "a sharp sword piercing the body of Western political science". The wound left by that sword has not yet healed. It not only won Machiavelli the title of "Father of Modern Politics", but also made him notorious for five hundred years, becoming a symbol of cunning and immorality.

The author of this book lived in an era when Italy fell into division and the principalities fought against each other, and had a strong yearning for national unity. In the book, the author strips away morality and dissects politics with instrumental rationality; he emphasizes strength and the role of the army, and the way of being a king and the principles of governing the country proposed are shocking. Mussolini called it "the statesman's pocket guide", Russell denounced it as "the scoundrel's manual".