I mentioned that you would need to choose to read either The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli or The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Both books can be downloaded for free from iBooks . They can sometimes even be purchased from thrift stores if you are lucky.

So, what are you to do in this paper? First both books offer the reader insight into leadership and organizations where we might define the latter in terms of an army, a community, a political entity. Both may be viewed as dark treatises but both may also been seen as shining a light upon virtue in the sense that lessons can be learned, pitfalls avoided, and intellectualism and creativity encouraged. Many have read these books and just as many have commented on them. There is no shortage of discussions on the internet.

Please understand that I am not asking you to write a book review. Rather, I am asking you to write on each of the following points relative to your understanding of your chosen book:

• What is the proper role of a leader and what are their obligations as such?
• What is the proper role of the follower and what are their obligations as such?
• What do these readings inspire in you as strategies to maintain the complex/formal organization as we have studied it this semester?
• Discuss in your paper, one additional point from your choice of book that you consider to be a valuable “takeaway“. Explain why it is important to you.

As you address these three points, you must draw quotes from the book that support your reasoning. You may draw information from published sources to support your rationale but you must prepare a reference page and cite those sources properly within your text.

This is to be an APA formatted paper. I expect to see a cover page, an abstract or executive summary, a Table of Contents, a properly formatted body of your written work, and a reference page/s.

I envision this paper being no longer than 10 double-spaced typed pages using a standard 11 or 12 point font with 1 inch left, right, top and bottom margins.