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.

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.

(1) Be absent to increase your power / Don't isolate yourself from others, or you'll lose power

(2) Crush your enemies totally / Win your enemies over with love

There are probably others, but those are the ones I recall off the top of my head.

It is no defense for the author to say that well, sometimes one rule works, and sometimes another does. That's not what being a "law" is all about. We don't hear scientists say, "Well, in this case the law of gravity is not called for -- instead, we're going to use the law of floating in midair." Laws are laws. They can't have random, undefined "exceptions" at unpredictable times. The author doesn't even try to formulate rules for when certain of the power "laws" are called for, and when their opposites would work (the "reversal" sections notwithstanding), he just rattles off all 48 one after the other. But then, I guess a book called "The 48 Tactics of Power That Might or Might Not Work When You Try Them" wouldn't sell well.

Despite this shortcoming, the anecdotes in the book are often quite engaging, although a little more variety is called for. The same cast of characters crops up again and again: Yellow Kid Weil, Count Victor Lustig, Talleyrand, Bismarck, Barnum, and Kissenger must have been the most powerful folks in history based on how often they are mentioned here. It would've been nice to hear from more contemporary power players -- Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey, for instance.

Overall, a fun but largely useless book.


Black/White/Gray   August 15, 2001
 86 out of 90 found this review helpful

When it comes to morality and ethics, people are used to thinking in terms of black and white. Conversely, "The 48 Laws of Power" deals primarily with the gray areas. At the risk of sounding melodramatic and trite, I say that most of the Laws covered in this book can be used for great evil or for great good. It depends on the reader. There is really nothing wrong with most of the Laws per se.

Each Law comes with true stories from history about those who successfully observed it and those who foolishly or naively trangressed it. Robert Greene has an interpretation for each story. Though each Law is self-explanatory, Greene's explanations are not padding, fluff or stuffing to make the book longer. They actually give greater clarification and depth. Greene's insight even extends to crucial warnings about how the Laws could backfire.

There are two reasons to read this book:

1. For attack: To gain power, as have others who have carefully observed the Laws;

2. For defense: To be aware of ways that people may be trying to manipulate you.

As Johann von Goethe said (as quoted in "The 48 Laws of Power", of course): "The only means to gain one's ends with people are force and cunning. Love also, they say, but that is to wait for sunshine, and life needs every moment."

Those who say they have never used any of these laws are either being hypocritical--or lying.


The soul you sell may be your own! Lessons learned.   April 14, 2000
 72 out of 79 found this review helpful

The book is well written, engaging in concept, and it gets its points across well. It is also very useful and practical. It is, of course, also quite evil. The very essense of it in fact. Please understand that I don't usually speak in such black and white terms, or religious terms, but this book struck me as that - pure evil. Despite it's title, however, it is not really about true power. True power is about leadership, vision, and conviction. This is merely about the immoral and unethical tricks, manipulations and deceptions that some people use to work themselves into positions of influence and authority over others. Since these people and their tactics certainly exist however, this book is an excellent guide to tell you exactly what to look for in others and so help you plan your defenses. Some of the laws are common sense and relatively harmless (like law 1 - never outshine the master, or another: do not show your weaknesses, keep your mystery) but some are ruthless, unethical, immoral and I could never follow them (like - having others do your work for you and then taking credit for their work, or: targeting weaker people as demonstrations for your power by setting them up for public attack, etc.) Even if you do not plan to use the techniques yourself, it is good to know about them. It is useful to be able to form an effective defense against them for when they do come up in life. Add to this the fact that the book is entertaining to read, and you have a worthwhile purchase. Like looking at the opposite team's playbook.

More knowledge is good I think. I feel somewhat wiser for having read it.


Advice for the insecure, the incompetent, and the coward.   May 11, 2004
 40 out of 81 found this review helpful

This is a remarkably silly book, both in terms of its actual content and in its claim of generality. The author offers only anecdotal and meager historical evidence for his claims, never any scientific analysis supported by careful statistical sampling. Does the author seriously believe that if the advice in this book is followed that any individual will be able to become a "powerful" person? Has he studied the histories of individuals who have decided to follow his advice, in order to judge their "success" as compared to those who did not follow such advice?

I ran across this book in the psychology section of a local bookstore, and believed it to be a psychological study of "power-seekers". Curious as to answering the question as to whether the attainment of power is an objective requirement for the human psyche, or whether the lust for it is a symptom of a dysfunctional, maladjusted individual, I believed that a psychological study done with rigorous, painstaking scientific methods would shed light on this question. After a brief perusal of the book however, I concluded that the book must be a parody of the power-seeker, not to be taken seriously, serving only to amuse or poke fun of those whom are easily suckered by the ill-defined and transitory rewards of "power".

But if the book is read in its entirety, which I did, it seems as though the author really believes what he is putting in print. This is unfortunate, since better use could be made of time and resources. It takes energy to move a pen or move fingers on a keyboard, to produce the paper for this book, and to manufacture its ink. All of this energy is totally wasted on this book, including the energy needed to read it.

Only a fool, a coward, or the weak-minded would follow the advice in this book. It is written for the uncreative, the yellow-belly, the psychologically insecure. Individuals with these traits are always in a perpetual state of fear, for they know that their mind is impotent, that the slightest perturbation will knock them out of their unstable equilibrium of imagined security. Such people are easy to spot, for they never say anything of any consequence. If their mental competence is challenged, they will come apart at the seams. Then watch them flee, and laugh out loud when these petty scoundrels scurry away like scared ants. Any revenge they take is to be scoffed at, for when one stands up to them with the sword of mental competence, their schemes will dissolve into nothingness. Chuckle at their obsequious flatteries, and be entertained with the observations of their stupidity, as they try and pass themselves off as "powerful" people. They are better to watch than circus clowns, and their make-up is always smeared. The self-confident, mentally astute individual is their anathema, but their dependence on such an individual is overwhelming. They need the competent, but never the other way around. Such is the nature of their "power": it is in reality pure weakness and has enormous fragility.

The book has to rank as one of the worst ever written, for it is serious in its petty doctrines. It encourages the practice of evasion and theft. It attempts to circumvent the practical and the competent, not knowing that such an attempt is doomed to failure. It confuses realism with cynicism, and it equates the acquisition of wealth with its plundering. Wallowing in a vague cesspool of self-satisfaction, it peddles power as if it were a commodity, forgetting that its reality is tenuous, and its lifetime is fleeting.