The 48 Laws of Power

A passable synthesis of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Carl von Clausewitz’s On War that reads somewhere between the source texts and CliffsNotes. Greene presents the book in an episodic manner. Laws don’t build on one-another and he re-introduces historical figures like Mata Hari and Cardinal Richelieu each time he cites them as examples. Written prior to social media’s emergence and claiming Henry Kissinger as a contemporary example, it—unlike its source text—feels dated. An updated version leading with modern examples and working back to the fundamental laws might fare better.