Product Description

Cunning, instructive, and amoral, this controversial bestseller distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. Law 1: Never Outshine the Master. Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions. Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work for You, but Always Take the Credit. Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally. Law 33: Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew. These are the laws of power in their unvarnished essencethe philosophies of Machiavelli (The Prince), Sun-tzu (The Art of War), Carl von Clausewitz, Talleyrand, the great seducer Casanova, con man Yellow Kid Weil, and other legendary thinkers and schemers. They teach prudence, stealth, mastery of one's emotions, the art of deception, and the total absence of mercy. Like it or not, all have practical applications in real life. Each law is illustrated with examples of observance or transgression drawn from history and featuring such famous figures as Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, Mao, Alfred Hitchcock, P.T. Barnum, Haile Selassie, Catherine the Great, and Socrates. Convincing, practical, sometimes shocking, this book will fascinate anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #226747 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-05
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

From Amazon.com
"Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the world, a shifting of perspective," writes Robert Greene. Mastery of one's emotions and the arts of deception and indirection are, he goes on to assert, essential. The 48 laws outlined in this book "have a simple premise: certain actions always increase one's power ... while others decrease it and even ruin us."

The laws cull their principles from many great schemers--and scheming instructors--throughout history, from Sun-Tzu to Talleyrand, from Casanova to con man Yellow Kid Weil. They are straightforward in their amoral simplicity: "Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit," or "Discover each man's thumbscrew." Each chapter provides examples of the consequences of observance or transgression of the law, along with "keys to power," potential "reversals" (where the converse of the law might also be useful), and a single paragraph cleverly laid out to suggest an image (such as the aforementioned thumbscrew); the margins are filled with illustrative quotations. Practitioners of one-upmanship have been given a new, comprehensive training manual, as up-to-date as it is timeless.

From Publishers Weekly
Greene and Elffers have created an heir to Machiavelli's Prince, espousing principles such as, everyone wants more power; emotions, including love, are detrimental; deceit and manipulation are life's paramount tools. Anyone striving for psychological health will be put off at the start, but the authors counter, saying "honesty is indeed a power strategy," and "genuinely innocent people may still be playing for power." Amoral or immoral, this compendium aims to guide those who embrace power as a ruthless game, and will entertain the rest. Elffers's layout (he is identified as the co-conceiver and designer in the press release) is stylish, with short epigrams set in red at the margins. Each law, with such allusive titles as "Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy," "Get Others to Do the Work for You, But Always Take the Credit," "Conceal Your Intentions," is demonstrated in four ways?using it correctly, failing to use it, key aspects of the law and when not to use it. Illustrations are drawn from the courts of modern and ancient Europe, Africa and Asia, and devious strategies culled from well-known personae: Machiavelli, Talleyrand, Bismarck, Catherine the Great, Mao, Kissinger, Haile Selassie, Lola Montes and various con artists of our century. These historical escapades make enjoyable reading, yet by the book's conclusion, some protagonists have appeared too many times and seem drained. Although gentler souls will find this book frightening, those whose moral compass is oriented solely to power will have a perfect vade mecum. BOMC and Money Book Club alternates. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince (1513) as an amoral guide to practicing power in a dangerous world. Author Greene (formerly at Esquire) and collaborator Joost, the packager of many books for Penguin Studios, including best sellers like The Secret Language of Birthdays, give us an updated version for obtaining and using power today. The book is arranged into 48 laws concentrating on interaction among individuals. Readers are advised not to outshine the boss, not to trust friends too much, to court attention, keep people dependent on you, use selective honesty, distrust the free lunch, and crush enemies. Examples from classical, European, Chinese, and Japanese history illustrate these points, as do hints from American con men like Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil. Further illustrations are taken from Henry Kissinger, Napoleon, and Haile Selassie. The book's ideas apply to politics, the workplace, and human relationships as a whole. Moral purists will be appalled by it; amoral survivors will like its frank nature. Schools might want to consider this new interpretation for ethics classes. Recommended for all libraries. [For another interpretation of Machiavelli, see Alistair McAlpine's The New Machiavelli: The Art of Politics in Business, reviewed on p. 90?Ed.]?Stephen L. Hupp, Univ. of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Lib., P.
-?Stephen L. Hupp, Univ. of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Lib., PA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.