Niccoló Machiavelli
Niccoló Macchiavelli (1469-1527) created a whole new field of study that we now call political science. He and his best friend Francesco Guicciardini together wrote the first studies of political action that subjected these actions to careful "scientific" study in an attempt to study the political field of human action in a calm and dispassionate way, isolated from the usual religious and national prejudices. No one had ever thought this way; no one had ever written in this way. It was new; It was modern. One book above all made him famous: The Prince. The most powerful man in the world, Emperor Charles V, had three books on his bedside table: The Bible, The Courtier, and The Prince.
