Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: 48 Laws of Power

Top positive review

Essential reading if you are dealing with difficult people

Reviewed in Australia on 10 September 2019

I know a lot of the reviews found this book quite confronting but for me, it was life changing.

If you are dealing with very manipulative or difficult people as I am, the book is useful in strategy in how to side step the worst of their behaviour or schemes which target you. It is particularly useful if you operate in some kind of modern “court” or community where your enemy also operates such as a workplace, church or other shared community. Importantly the book allowed me to stop feeling guilty about taking common sense self protective measures.

Also there is useful advice for people meeting others for the first time. Humans really are “foreign countries” as the author puts it and that’s why you should take your time to study them carefully before rushing into a committed relationship which is hard to get out of later on.

8 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Jayden

Nothing

Reviewed in Australia on 16 November 2020

Absolutely garbage waste

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From Australia

Andrew

Compelling if you have no moral code

Reviewed in Australia on 15 May 2015

A very compelling concept initially. However, if you are one with strong values of honest and transparency, then this is not for you.

If you are comfortable with deceiving and manipulating others to your adavantage then go for it.

13 people found this helpful

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From other countries

Janaka Goonasekera

These rules of power that will get you alone, broke and turn you in to a loser/wanna-be abuser

Reviewed in the United States on 14 October 2018

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All ethics, decency, courtesy and fairness falls out of the Golden Rule - "Treat others as you would like to be treated". So the question is what happens when we are all those things, for the best of our ability, but we get treated poorly by a narcissist that abuses our kindness. Do we the embrace the psychology of our abuser and accept that is how the world is and that it was OUR fault for being naive?

These rules are the revenge fantasy of a wounded child archetype. They are highly dysfunctional in any healthy community, relationship, friendships of family. If you practice them, you will end up losing the most valuable of friendships and other relationships that would have helped you out the most in life, and keep you in that hell.

If you want to be able to recognize psychopathic indicators in others, read up some books on modern psychology that addresses that directly. It is not very hard to recognize such people.

I heard this is the most popular book ordered in US prisons. That should tell you something.

2,198 people found this helpful

Alex

Not applicable to a modern environment

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 June 2022

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My issues with this book are not ethical but logical. I’ve seen some of the five-star reviewers refer to Greene’s suggestions as equatable to the laws of physics. They are not. Even if you come at problems with an entirely dispassionate view, tactics for goal-acquisition change according to the environment you’re working in, and the goal you wish to achieve. Many of the stories in this book are from antiquity, a time when noble families ruled with absolute authority, justified by conquest or self-proclaimed divine right. Which individual in the modern western-world holds this level of authority? Citizens of western countries now wield so much individual power, through access to technology, education, legal-action, travel and communication, that neither leaders nor private citizens can get away with the type of sustained immoral behaviour described in this book for very long (relative, at least, to previous centuries). Employees of bad managers can leave the company, partners of abusive spouses are free to leave and receive legal protection from the abuser, citizens of bad politicians can vote them out, or as an extreme measure can revolt or emigrate. Individuals can communicate directly with members of the military via social media, sharing evidence counter to the leader’s propaganda. The press has a much wider reach, and although there are plenty of problems with today’s modern media, citizens can still become much better informed about their leader’s actions than they ever could during the times Greene’s anecdotes occurred. All these actions can be recorded, compiled, and used against an immoral actor for the rest of their life, wherever they go. This greatly increases the long-term risk of using cruelty, deception and other behaviours considered to be immoral.

An additional flaw in Greene’s particular style of argument is that he offers little-to-no specifics in his examples, liberally cherry-picking from complex historical events and making large assumptive leaps about the motivations and reasoning of the figures involved to get them to posthumously support his narrative.

One positive point is that, as the mindset encouraged by this book is sadly widespread, it is good to educate yourself on in it in order to avoid those who practise it. In my experience thse unfortunate cynics tend to be unhappy in themselves and frustrating to work with. Far from the “powerful” figures they strive to emulate.

There are far more useful books that will give you actual power in the modern environment that I recommend above this one. If you want to motivate yourself and others in a positive way, look into "Self-Determination Theory" by Ryan and Deci. If you want to gain people’s admiration and become indispensable, rather than trying to cultivate an air of superiority as Greene’s rules suggest, try applying the latest skill-learning psychology described in books like “Peak” by Ericsson and Pool to your own efforts. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you can acquire valuable, marketable skills. Beyond that, a basic education in physics, nutrition, accounting, positive-psychology and home-economics, will provide vastly greater gains to the majority of modern individuals than a Machiavellian mindset.

daud bhatti

The examples are so specific and abstract that it bares no resemblance to the nuances of real life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 April 2021

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This book seems to have gotten fairly viral amongst the teen boy crypto cult crowd which makes me pretty scared. If you act like the 'laws' are gospel and project them in your life you will come off as a not a nice person. There is this misconception that you have to be this tough, cold and rude person playing the power game to become a CEO, this is not true be a good person and you'll be fine.

If you do want to improve your position in a business or what ever id advice getting a more specific book on that topic, this book is too general so likely will be of very little use

The cover looks cool though, it serves as a great decorative piece! And when my friends see it they always think im some power god pulling the strings of the universe

One person found this helpful

sleeping_scorpion

Depends what you want from it...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2021

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This is a book which will help you understand the behaviours of unscrupulous people you will encounter in the world and moreover the methodology of their shenanigans. Which if you recognise the patterns you can hopefully short-circuit.

In my lay opinion following this book’s ‘laws’ may lead to changes in character and consequences in psyche and relationships. In a nutshell it’s a manual to maybe gain materially in the short term but with long term negative consequences to your mental, emotional and spiritual centres. Basically it’ll help you become a POS - yes I said it.

The 48 laws of power are the antithesis of how to conduct yourself with any morals or ethics in any interactions.

Amazon Customer

Promising premise but poor execution

Reviewed in Canada on 21 June 2019

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I was really excited about this book and thought there would be much to learn from it. Author does bring up interesting points in his main arguments. I’m not bothered by the Machiavellian nature of some of his arguments.

However, the evidence for why his arguments are true and “how to execute” portions fall short in subsequent paragraphs. His “evidence” is oftentimes just a single obscure historical anecdote/case study that doesn’t have much present-day relevance (ie., what a sumerian king once did thousands of years ago). If you come from any type of science/data background then you will be frustrated by the lack of evidence, data, and unbiased analysis that is used to justify his arguments. Many chapters had me wondering, “why is this the example he chose? Why not this other significant historical event that suggests the very opposite of what he’s arguing?”. Very biased. And although I know most argumentative essays are biased, most will at least address counter arguments or provide evidence against rebuttals to build a stronger argument. Although the initial paragraphs that introduce his ideas at the start of each chapter are interesting/seem persuasive (and almost have me convinced)...I couldn’t help but feel let down when he moved on to his “evidence” sections. I want to be persuaded but was just so unconvinced, especially when some of his case studies read like first-person (describing the thought process of a Sumerian king for example? All we can know from historical record is what happened, not what parties involved were thinking.)

Overall, somewhat of an interesting read if you don’t think deeply about his arguments. However, if you’re looking for evidence-based arguments for why you should (or shouldn’t) behave in certain ways, then you won’t find it here.

28 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

missing images

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2020

Verified Purchase

The book itself is very good and the quality of the pages seems good but none of the images have been generated. I got this issue with other amazon books as well, no images and image labels messed up where the images were supposed to be.

Heyya

Interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 December 2020

Verified Purchase

An interesting read. Frightening to think that there are people like the ones mentioned in the book. I just dip in and dip out.

DebGrif

Nice size book with clear writing.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2021

Verified Purchase

Returned as it wasn't what I wanted.

Kibreya Hossain

Damaged

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2020

Verified Purchase

Book came creased and damaged

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