Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills three thousand years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. It 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, the virtue of stealth, and many demand the total absence of mercy, but like it or not, all have applications...

"From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a year's worth of daily wisdom and guidance, distilled from the lessons of his six previous books and from never-before-published work Robert Greene, the bestselling author, philosopher, and life guide for millions of people, applies the wisdom of centuries to his mission of revealing the secret truths about the essential forces shaping our lives. His readers look to him to answer their most elemental...