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Summary: Some interesting and useful tibits in this book
Review: When I first glared at the table of contents and saw such headings as "Pose as a friend, work as a spy" I knew that the book was not your typical book on how to influence people. Today, few authors have the courage to risk making bold, controversial statements that may offend broad audiences. If you are in a moral straight jacket, then this book may not be for you. If, however, you are like me and you are serious about becoming a master of the Universe then this book is for you! I can honestly say that this book is entertaining, interesting and practical. There is a lot of history in the pages of this book that can not be argued against. If you are not afraid to face reality this book is quite helful. But be warned, this is not your typical "positive thinking" or "win-win" book. This book is a book about gaining your objectives. This is powerful, to say the least.
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Summary: Cunning, Ruthless and Instructive
Review: The stories make this an interesting read. I enjoyed story time about a topic that interests me. I didn't know that were such cunning and ruthless people. Ok, call me naive. But those cunning ruthless people really put a lot of time into their practice. This book will give you insights into characters and culprits you didn't have before. Very useful in perfecting your acumen.
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Summary: Stupid book
Review: Yet another self-help book! Lots of handy tips like: "Get people's attention at all costs" and "Blend into the crowd so they don't notice you." (Hm, which to do?) At one point, he actually commends the career of the famed French imposter, Mesmer, who was thrown out of Paris in disgrace when his imposture was discovered.This book will not help you get any meaningful power. If you try to follow its suggestions literally, you will become a hypocrite and a creep. Emerson said, "Be, not seem" and said more in three words than this book says in three hundred pages. This book IS interesting for all of the historical anecdotes of duplicity which it regales the reader with. Since it's not a scholarly book in any sense, such anecdotes would need to be independently verified. But as honest advice? Heck, in the Silicon Valley this book should be titled "How to Ruin your Company and Get Fired." Unbelievably stupid stuff.
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Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: If you like Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Musashi and Baltasar Gracian then this book is everything you need in one. It's a study guide that you will refer to over and over. It's practical and applicable. Warning - don't let your friends or associates in on its existence. The less they know about this book the better off you are. It's that potent.
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Summary: A Different Perspective On Things
Review: This book overall is an excellent book. The book has a good structure for organizing and reading the laws. The book gives examples from history of what happens when you follow these laws and the consequences of breaking these laws. There are authors notes at the end of the examples explaining the keys to power and interpretations of the examples. On the side margins the book contains fables, parables, anecdotes, sayings, quotes, etc... that further illustrate the laws. One of the first things readers may notice is that this book is written with very little bias to what is moral and immoral. It's focus is on attaining and maintaining power. This information can be applied to various situations and is useful for almost anybody.
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Summary: Wisdom of the Serpent
Review: Matthew 10:15-17 [NAS] 15 ""Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. 16 ""Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 ""But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; This work truly distills the shrewdness of the centuries. I am going to poke a little good natured fun at Mr. Greene but I truly admire this work and recommend it unreservedly. Mr. Greene solves two of the great paradox for a man who has a degree in classical studies. 1.) How can I possibly make a living? 2.) How can I possibly make a living? The answer of course... WRITE! What better path for one who education is the reading of stories. In writing this tome, Mr. Greene holds true to his own ministry as he remains faithful to Law #7 Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit, and he solves three very slippery problems for himself. 1.) how do I promote myself 2.) how do I make use of all the endless yak and history and legends and stories that litter the shelves of the world, and most importantly 3.) how do I make a living? The beauty being... the work was already written! Mr. Greene having a masters eye for the essence shows his genius in arrangment and presentation. I recommend his work without reservation. However, I would like to suggest what I believe may be the absent 49th Law of Power. "Humility is a state of realism that is aware and accepting that all movement and stability is subject to the opinion of the Almighty." - Lawrence R. Barnes, (1964 - Present)
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Summary: FROM CHAOS TO SERENITY: FROM PAIN TO FREEDOM
Review: There are so many glowing reviews of this masterpiece that I may only add an additional small summarization. Whereas some readers (and reviewers) may think in terms of using Greene's "Laws of Power" to seek dominion over others, for most I believe it will be more of a liberating experience from the pain of betrayal by friends, or co-workers, or lovers. "Power" when read and applied will add order, and a sense of serenity, where personal chaos once existed. It will show you how to never be rendered asunder again by friend or foe. "Power" is a timeless masterpiece of how to manage your life with dignity by neutralizing other's power plays. Most of us want to share a delightful book with friends. This is one book you hope your friends and acquaintances never see. You will want to keep it for yourself (and your children) exclusively.
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Summary: Best book read in the past 5 years!
Review: This book explains the various laws to follow in order to become powerful. Depending on the level that you want to achieve, apply one, some or all of the 48 laws. Superbly well explained and supported by countless historical examples. This book changed my life! I am not the same person anymore! I have already applied at least 10 of the 48 laws of power! Watch out!
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Summary: Will serve you well when the next villain happens along.
Review: THE 48 LAWS OF POWER. By Robert Greene. 452 pp. A Joost Elffers Production. Penguin Books, 1998. ISBN 0140280197 (pbk.) Most of us have heard of Machiavelli's 'Prince,' and fewer perhaps of the maxims of such writers as La Rochefoucauld, Francesco Guicciardini, or Balthasar Gracian. Fewer still realize that these works, along with many others, belong to a class of literature that might be called 'Crooked Wisdom,' or have actually made a study of this subject. But all of us ought to have studied it if only because at one time or another we have all been its victims, and may at any moment become its victims again. For Crooked Wisdom is nothing more than the art of acquiring power, and, as Robert Greene informs us in his concise but remarkably perceptive Preface, "all of us hunger for power, and almost all of our actions are aimed at gaining it" (p.xix). Others desire power over us, we desire power over them, and how best to frustrate their desires while attaining our own ends forms the subject of the present quite brilliant book. The literature of Crooked Wisdom is fairly extensive, and embraces works from Ancient China and India, Greece and Rome, through to more contemporary works. What Greene has done is to comb through this literature, analyze it, and distill the essence of its wisdom into 48 easily remembered Laws of Power, laws such as : 1. Never Outshine the Master; 2. Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies; 3. Conceal Your Intentions; 4. Always Say Less Than Necessary; 15. Crush Your Enemy Totally; 32. Play to People's Fantasies; 44. Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect; etc. If some of these seem amoral, that's because "Power is essentially amoral." 'Amoral,' however, doesn't necessarily mean 'immoral,' for Greene takes care to point out that "the better you are at dealing with power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become" (p.xix), since like most other things, crooked wisdom, or the art of surviving in a crooked world, can be used for either good or bad ends. As for the 48 laws, they have a simple premise : "Certain actions almost always increase one's power (the observance of the law), while others decrease it and even ruin us (the transgression of the law)" (p.xxii). Each of the laws form the subject of an entire chapter, most of which follow a similar pattern : 1. A statement of the particular Law; 2. Judgement (a brief explanation of the meaning of the law); 3. Transgression of the Law (detailed and fascinating examples drawn from history of the calamities that befell those who ignored or broke the law); 4. an Interpretation of the meaning of the historical examples; 5. Observance of the Law (historical anecdotes about those wise enough to understand and not transgress the law); 6. Interpretation; 7. Keys to Power (further advice and examples); 8. Image (this is a brilliant notion and very much in the tradition of the Renaissance for it offers, in a few words, a vivid concrete picture to keep in mind and around which all one's knowledge of the law in question can constellate); 9. Authority (a quotation from one of the great Masters of Crooked Wisdom such as Balthasar Gracian, Baldesar Castiglione, Sun Tzu, etc., which expresses in brief the essence of the particular law); 10. Reversal (an explanation of the type of situation in which the greater wisdom is NOT to follow the particular law). It can be seen that Greene has been remarkably thorough, but there's even more. For running down the wide outer margin of most of this book's spacious pages are further illustrative examples and anecdotes, drawn from a wide range of sources, that serve as a sort of running commentary on the text. The book is rounded out with a Selected Bibliography (that might have been fuller and surprisingly omits mention of Francesco Guicciardini), and a detailed Index. Physically the book is quite a stunning production. Beautifully designed by Joost Elffers, it is well-printed in two colors (black and a sort of strawberry) on large pages (6.5 wide by 9.2 inches) of excellent ivory-tinted smooth paper, bound in a glossy wrapper, though sadly it isn't stitched for ease of reading or durability. The strawberry is used for headings, and for quotations both within the text and in the outer margins. Unfortunately the latter, although extremely attractive, are printed in a small italic font which would have been considerably easier to read if the color had been stronger. Greene has in effect given us a Summa or Anatomy or Treatise of the Art of Power. But since it is an art that we all attempt to practise to some extent or other, and since he provides a thorough analysis of the sort of thing that we see going on all around us in our daily life - husbands and wives play the power game to some extent, and children, and friends and one's fellow workers of course - his is one of the most interesting and valuable studies of power that you are ever likely to read. Greene writes in a lively and engaging way, and his book can be read straight through, browsed in, or simply consulted as a reference when studying the law or laws that apply to one's specific situation. And even though you may have doubts about wanting to become proficient in this art yourself (doubts which the Preface will clear up), you certainly owe it to yourself to become familiar with the many forms power can take as it will serve you well when the next villain to enter your life happens along. With 'The 48 Laws of Power' under your belt, any such villain will almost certainly be chagrined to find that they have more than met their match.
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Summary: Useful Reading
Review: Well organized, peppered with small stories that can be read on the go. Each time I pick it up I have events from that day that relate. I've read it twice now.
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