Machiavelli wrote The Prince to demonstrate that political decisions are taken in a moral void; that they may need to be wicked, as the world understands the word, in order to achieve publicly-desired ends. Ranging from Hitler and Stalin to Mrs Thatcher and the Poll Tax, this is a re-examination of The Prince in the context of 20th-century politics and politicians. Machiavelli illustrated his points with examples from classical history and from his own late-Renaissance era, and now Edward Pearce uses examples drawn from recent history to illuminate the motives and calculations which underlie 20th-century politics. The author is a political commentator who writes for The Guardian and New Statesman. His other books include Election Rides, an account of the 1992 election campaign.