The 48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene
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Book Reviews of The 48 Laws of Power
Book Review: Interesting, but self-contradictory and repetitive
Summary: 3 Stars
Before I proceed to trash this book (and I'm not going to trash it very much--notice the three stars) I'll enumerate its good qualities.
First, it's well-written. The authors really know how to put together a sentence, a paragraph, and a persuasive argument.
Second, it's got a lot of good information. It's a fairly comprehensive survey of power techniques known to royalty, politicians, artists and con artists--ancient and modern. If nothing else, it will provide you with some good leads to classic works by writers such as Machiavelli.
Third, it voices an interesting philosophical argument for the amoral nature of power, and then proceeds to explain the 48 laws without any hand-wringing over "right" and "wrong." In other words, the authors are more concerned with what works than with what is "right." That's as it should be. Morality is largely subjective anyway.
So what's wrong with this book?
* It is far too long.* It is organized into 48 chapters, one per "law," with supporting examples from history to demonstrate the validity of each law. The trouble is, many of the examples are cited in multiple chapters. Likewise, many of the laws are essentially the same, and could have been combined.
* It contradicts itself without acknowledging or explaining the contradiction.* The various chapters of the book don't seem to "talk" to each other. Therefore, in one chapter you are instructed to "crush your enemy totally" and in another you are instructed to make your enemies your friends! I don't expect to literally apply all laws to all situations. However, I think that the entire book could have benefited from thorough cross-referencing, elimination of redundancy, and a softer, more situational setup in the introduction.
* It may or may not be accurate.* I am not qualified to judge the historical accuracy of the examples cited by the authors. However, there was one detail that made me suspicious: their description of Northwest native american potlatching. It's something I happen to know a little about, and their description did not jibe.
* None of this information is new.* It has all been said or written before. I am sure that the authors themselves would admit this. It has simply been collated, digested, and re-packaged for the modern audience.
The authors, I suspect, are following some of their own con-artist rules: tell people that you have the secret to becoming powerful, which you will sell to them for $15 a pop, and become powerful (wealthy) yourself by doing so. The fact is, if you are one of the needy, habitual consumers of self-help manuals such as this one--and let's face it, that's essentially what this is--it WILL NOT HELP YOU. You will just go out and buy another pop psychology book next week.
On the other hand, (here is where I defend the book again) if you need a jolt to your naivete, if you are a self-aware individual and want a little help dealing with other folks' shenanigans, if you are looking for inspiration on how to deal with a certain power-struggle situation, if you are smart, but not street-smart--this might be the book to read.
But be warned: Unless you have the ability to take the information in books and apply it, you might as well take that $15 to a local dive bar and buy a successful pool hustler a couple of drinks. Maybe he (or she) will teach you something.
Book Review: May be unethical, but it's true and it works
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not earning over a million bucks a year so I might not be qualified to judge the value of the book. However, as somebody in his late thirties and always stuck in the middle of world class big corps, I can tell just knowing the laws can greatly improve your ability to defend against arrows shooting at your back. For your easy reference, the laws are:-
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
5. So much depends on reputation - guard it with your life
6. Court attention at all cost
7. Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit
8. Make other people come to use - use bait if necessary
9. Win thru your actions, neer thru argument
10. Infection: Avoid the unhappy and unlucky
11. Learn to keep people dependent on you
12. Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim
13. When asking for help, appeal to people's self interest, never to their mercy or gratitude
14. Pose as a friend, work as a spy
15. Crush your enemy totally
16. Use absence to increase respect and honor
17. Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability
18. Do not build fortresses to protect yourself - isolation is dangerous
19. Know who you are dealing with - do not offend the wrong person
20. Do not commit to anyone
21. Play a sucker to catch a sucker - seem dumber than your mark
22. Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power
23. Concentrate your forces
24. Play the perfect courtier
25. Re-create yourself
26. Keep your hands clean
27. Play on people's need to believe to create cultlike following
28. Enter action with boldness
29. Plan all the way to the end
30. Make your accomplishments seem effortless
31. Control the options: get others to play with the cards you deal
32. Play to people's fantasies
33. Discover each man's thumbcrew
34. Be royal in your own fashion; act like a king to be treated like one
35. Master the art of timing
36. Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them is the best revenge
37. Create compelling spectacles
38. Think as you like but behave like others
39. Stir up waters to catch fish
40. Despise the free lunch
41. Avoid stepping into a great man's shoes
42. Strike the shepherd and the sheep with scatter
43. Work on the hearts and minds of others
44. Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect
45. Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once
46. Never appear too perfect
47. Do not go past the mark you aimed for: in victory, learn when to stop
48. Assume formlessness
I hope you wont find the above "laws" too repugnant. Anyway, this book is well written with plenty of lively and interesting examples or stories. An excellent read for both leisure and self improvement, I must say. Highly recommended.
Book Review: The key to all office politics
Summary: 5 Stars
There are many reasons to read popular business books like The Oz Principle or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People or Principle Centred Leadership or Who Moved My Cheese or Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't or... well, you name it.
Or... well, maybe there aren't that many good reasons.
There's an aphorism that we like to quote that suggests that if anyone had the right answer for business there wouldn't be so many business books published.
This book is different. It's very different from any business book you've ever read. In this case you've found what could be called: "it." Robert Greene has published the business book to end all business books.
The 48 Laws of Power are not about inspiring people, organizing people, or making any one feel better about themselves or the people around them. In some cases it is quite the opposite. This is a book that takes an unflinching look at the realities of the business world and what it takes to manipulate, win influence, and--ultimately--gain power. It is with power that a person may begin to shape the world around them and this book provides--in exhaustive detail--the laws themselves, an explanation of the laws, and many distinct historical examples proving these laws and showing how they work.
It really is an absolute manual on how to gain power. Then it's up to you to decide what to do with it.
The most exciting thing about the 48 Laws is how it suggests using the astonishing variety of business literature out there. It will teach you how to create spectacle, how to create a "cult-like following," how to "preach the need for change" but not be damaged by it, and countless other measures. These laws reveal how all the business books out there can be viewed as manipulations themselves in controlling the thoughts and minds of the people who read them. It's hard to measure how important this book actually is.
It is not the case that this book reveals idealized Capitalism. We're not suggesting that you use this book as your bible or somehow try to learn something about yourself.
We're not suggesting that this book will inspire you to do great things or reveal how great things come to be.
However, it is immeasurably useful in identifying the political manipulations and power moves that are going on around you. Being able to identify these events and counteract them will allow you to choose the kind of business leader you want to be by deftly dealing with the political realities. You master the laws and wield them or react to them as you see fit--but regardless at least you can now see them.
This book will teach you everything there is to know about "office politics": both how to use and how to react. For any business person who has ever been frustrated or mystified by the machinations of the corporate world then Robert Greene has answered all of your prayers if you will only listen to him.
READ MORE AT INCHOATUS.COM
Book Review: Power Games in Machiavellian Style
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is focused predominantly on Machiavellian strategies of power. As such, it is a very interesting read. Each "law of power" is illustrated with sample stories and some of the stories may be too much for the faint of heart - they are utterly ruthless.
Power is so seductive - the effects of it like chasing, fighting for and owning the "one ring that rules them all" from Talkien's "Lord of the Rings". It seems so irresistible, so sweet, but watch out how far you go, because while setting a trap for another, you can find yourself unnoticeably getting caught in it.
There is a saying that the absolute power corrupts. That is not exactly true of the "real" power - but the "real" power is not based on fear, only the perceived power is based on fear and that is what Machiavellian power is based upon. After all his motto was that it is better to be feared than to be loved. And if you invest yourself totally in being feared, one day you just find yourself ending all alone. There is yet another and better way - but that one takes another route. It is based on higher knowledge.
I am glad that Robert Green has added the "reversals" - the way you can find this double edged sword of power stuck in your own back if you're not careful.
This book is a lovely compendium of use and abuse of power with plenty of stories drawn from history. It is nice to be aware of possible consequences when using the laws of power before you become power crazy and find yourself in a ditch. With great power comes great responsibility.
Another reviewer mentioned that there is no "how to" in this book - well, even each heading clearly points out the modus operandi, which is further illustrated through the stories.
And not all the laws in the book are devious, even thought that may seem to be the main flavor of the book. Some of the laws are good common-sense advice as in "avoid free lunch", "plan all the way", "concentrate your forces", "master the art of timing", etc.
As you read this book, I'll just like to mention a story of a man who felt rather shy and powerless and who figured that the best way out for him to feel like somebody would be if he gets other people to be afraid of him. He found a book on mind-power and sat down to practice. It didn't take long, before he was apparently wielding power and people around him felt rather anxious in his presence. Eventually they all began finding excuses for staying away from him and in the end he was all alone - no one wanted him around.
So, when you engage into experimenting with these laws of power, temper them with love and wisdom - else you may not be too happy with your creation. Machiavelli, too, ended up in exhile and all alone.
Book Review: A Macchiavellian encyclopedia
Summary: 4 Stars
Amoral, ruthless and cunning, "The 48 Laws of Power", by Robert Greene, is a revised Macchiavellianism. Greene, a playwright and classical scholar, presents here a number of hypothetical and generalised strategies for the would-be diplomat as to how to accre power by all means, such as fraud, hypocrisy, treachery, self-mastery and dissimulation. The "laws" range from "Crush Your Enemy Totally", "Conceal Your Intentions", "Assume Formlessness" and "Take the Credit, While Others Do All the Work"; each law is expounded in an elegantly laid-out chapter, which includes instances, (based upon historical sources) where the law was successfully observed, possible instances when it was tragically transgressed, an interpretaion of both instances, some remarks as to the time and situations it can be applied and a possible reversal of the law (e.g. countermoves if the law in question fails, or when it would be prudent to desist from observing it.) Moreover, the book is highly democratic in spirit, and is tailored for people from even the lowest stratum of society, enabling them to apply these strategies in their lives in order to accumulate more power. The historical figures used by Greene are taken from as far back as classical antiquity, ancient China and Japan, and up to the Nixon era, though it would have been preferable had Greene updated his book even further and included more recent examples of powerful figures, such as Maragaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Bill Gates and David Copperfield. It's a pity that Greene has recourse to the same figures over and over again in order to illustrate his observations, which narrows down the cast of characters of what would have otherwise been an absorbing account of the power-plays of master manipulators. The book is entertainingly and attractively written, though, with a bibliography and an index, and is as extensive in its scope as an encyclopedia. My one major criticism, though, (and this applies to almost all self-help books) is that it may fail to meet its practical end by reducing all the laws of power to a mere forty-eight, as the realm of power is so diffuse that it can permit a number of different combinations of action, and shifts in perspective. Secondly, a born manipulator will have no need to consult a book such as this, as it is precisely the people who lack the skills Greene admires who will have anything to learn from it. Nevertheless, those who are frustrated, who are isolated, who crave attention, who are ugly, awkward, or simply misunderstood (as everyone is, from time to time) will find this book to be of some relevance. In any case, one can simply glance through it as a bold and peculiarly interesting armchair read.