The 48 Laws of Power - Book Review

This book “The 48 laws of Power” is written by "Robert Greene & Joost Elffers". It was published in September 1, 2000 by “Penguin Books”. The book’s main focus is to let the readers know what should be their persona while being in power. It present laws that enable the reader to know about power, about what/how to do/act when u are in power and how to achieve power.
As this small paragraph from the same book implies;

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.

The author supports his “Practical” views by providing arguments and narrating different stories from the history. The world we live in is a battle field and this book provides us with the armor. The author uses the techniques of persuasion to establish the truth of a statement or to convince the reader of its falsity. The purpose is to persuade the reader to believe something and perhaps to act on that belief. The author lists some very important laws that are observed by history-men and now persuades the readers to follow those laws. To get what you want in the court of life, Greene instructs you on how to: plan your steps ahead. The method of Mr. Robert Greene explaining these laws is very impressive. He first states the law. Then gives description and justification for that particular law and after that provides us with exact the reversal of what he justified. This allows the reader to look at a particular law from two different prospective. The author tried to show the readers not only the front side of the picture but also the backside and allowed the readers to decide which one to choose by them. This indeed maintains the reader’s interest as well as broadens the reader window of understanding. It also provides supportive information about how to act, how to respond and actually how to play the game. For example, Law 19 states;

Know Who You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person.
There are different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.

The author is a good player of words. He manipulated his words so beautifully to clear his point like in the above example the words “victims and opponents”. His play with words is another key that the text motivates the reader to act on what he just read. The author listed the laws of power and used highlighting techniques to attract the reader. Overall this is a very interesting, informative and persuasive book. One should read it at least once in order to be a successful person while being in power or being in race to achieve power. The laws stated in this book enable the readers to predict what will be the next move of their opposition. It is like playing the game of chess when you know which move your opponent is going to make next and when u know that, then winning the game is not difficult.

Written by: Danial Jalil