Editor Reviews:

Book Description:
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills three thousand years of the history of power in to forty-eight well explicated laws. As attention--grabbing in its design as it is in its content, this bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun-tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other great thinkers. Some laws teach the need for prudence ("Law 1: Never Outshine the Master"), the virtue of stealth ("Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions"), and many demand the total absence of mercy ("Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally"), but like it or not, all have applications in real life. Illustrated through the tactics of Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, P. T. Barnum, and other famous figures who have wielded--or been victimized by--power, these laws will fascinate any reader interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.

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.

Rating : - Awesome book!
When I were in high scool I used too alwayse get picked on buy other kids and I new that one day I would be powerfull. People made fun of me working at McDonalds at first but then something happended. I found this AWESOME book! now i have the last laff. One kid even bumped into me the other day and asked me for some money and I said your not powerful and spit in his face. i got beat up but felt better later on that week. my mom didnt buy me a GI Joe aircraft carrier when I was yong so I slashed all her tires and disconnekted the ocygen bottle just to show her who has the power now! I even make my cowworkers look really bad at work by doing small things to make them mess up and makes me look better. Thanks to the athor of this book. Finally a book that i can understand AND it makes sense to me also! I feel like i am the powerfullest man in the world and I no that I am everyday when i put on my brown uniform and look into the mirrer and tell myself that i am better than god and that he kooldnt ever sweep the floors at mcdonals like better than I can sweep the floors!