I´ve never known so much about 15th century Italian politics as I do now.

The Prince is a political-science classic cum business classic. Executives and MBAs like to imagine how strategic they´re being by reading this book (along with The Book of Five Rings, and The Art of War). If you as Mr. Business-guy think of yourself as the titular Prince, I suppose it probably does have a few nuggets of wisdom for you. Of course, the book is about winning at all costs, and so as Mr. Business-guy, you´d have to be an Enron-sized asshole to want to follow the advice.

Anyway, I´m glad I read the book so I know what all the fuss is about, and so I now know why the Borgias and the de Medicis had the failures and success they did, and why some Popes were perfectly suited to their political situation. That´s useful, right?