The 48 Laws of Power

Short description: 1998 non-fiction New York Times bestseller book by Robert Greene

The 48 Laws of Power

Author| Robert Greene
Country| United States
Subject| Self-help
Published| 1998 (Viking Press) (HC); 2007 (HighBridge Audio) CD
Pages| 480
ISBN| 0670881465 (HC); ISBN 978-1598870923 (CD)
OCLC| 39733201

Dewey Decimal

| 303.3 21
LC Class| BD438 .G74 1998
Followed by| The Art of Seduction

The 48 Laws of Power (1998) is a self-help book by American author Robert Greene.[1] The book is a New York Times bestseller,[2][3] selling over 1.2 million copies in the United States.

## Contents

* 1 Background
* 2 Reception
* 2.1 Critics and scholars
* 2.2 Popular
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Background

Greene initially formulated some of the ideas in The 48 Laws of Power while working as a writer in Hollywood and concluding that today's power elite shared similar traits with powerful figures throughout history.[4] In 1995, Greene worked as a writer at Fabrica, an art and media school, and met a book packager named Joost Elffers.[5][6] Greene pitched a book about power to Elffers and six months later, Elffers requested that Greene write a treatment.[5]

Although Greene was quite unhappy in his job, he was comfortable and saw the time needed to write a proper book proposal as too risky.[7] However, at the time Greene was rereading his favorite biography about Julius Caesar and took inspiration from Caesar's decision to cross the Rubicon River and fight Pompey, thus inciting the Caesar's civil war.[7] Greene wrote the treatment, which would later become The 48 Laws of Power.[7] He would note this as the turning point of his life.[7]

## Reception

### Critics and scholars

Carol Kennedy, writing in Director magazine, states "some of Greene's 'laws' seem contradictory" and the work is "plodding and didactic".[8] Jerry Adler, writing in Newsweek, lists ways the laws contradict one another and states, "Intending the opposite, Greene has actually produced one of the best arguments since the New Testament for humility and obscurity."[9] Kirkus Reviews said Greene offers no evidence to support his world view, that his laws contradict each other, and that the book is "simply nonsense".[10]

The 48 Laws of Power has been studied as Millsap College, and Ramapo College.[11][12] Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University said that Greene's so-called laws are based on isolated examples, and not on solid research.[4]

### Popular

The 48 Laws of Power has sold over 1.2 million copies in the United States and has been translated into 24 languages.[5] Fast Company called the book a "mega cult classic", and The Los Angeles Times noted that The 48 Laws of Power turned Greene into a "cult hero with the hip-hop set, Hollywood elite and prison inmates alike".[5][13]

The book has been reported to be much requested in American prison libraries.[4][14] Rapper 50 Cent stated that he related to the book "immediately", and approached Greene with the prospect of a potential collaboration, which would later become The 50th Law, another New York Times bestseller.[15] Busta Rhymes and Derrius Jackson used The 48 Laws of Power to deal with problematic movie producers.[6] The 48 Laws of Power has also been mentioned in songs by UGK, Jay Z, Kanye West, Central Cee, MF DOOM, and Drake.[16][17][18] [19] Dov Charney, founder and former CEO of American Apparel who would be terminated by that company in 2014, frequently quoted the laws during board meetings, has given friends and employees copies of the book, and appointed Greene to the board of the now defunct American Apparel.[5][20][21] Former Cuban President Fidel Castro is also claimed by the book's author to have read the book.[5] The book has been banned by several US prisons.[22]

The 48 Laws of Power has been referenced, or bought by 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Michael Jackson (who wrote in the margins[23]), Courtney Love (who was photographed carrying it on the way to court when facing a drugs charge[24]), and Will Smith.[5][25][26][4][27]

## See also

* The Art of War
* Thirty-Six Stratagems

## References

1. ↑ Greene, Robert (2000). The 48 Laws of Power. New York. pp. 452. ISBN 0140280197.
2. ↑ "Business Bestsellers". New York Times. November 8, 1998. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/08/business/the-new-york-times-business-best-sellers.html.
3. ↑ Green, Hardy. "Best Selling List". BusinessWeek.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Blake, John. How to Master the ‘48 Laws of Power’. CNN. March 15, 2010.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Chang, Andrea. American Apparel's in-house guru shows a lighter side. LA Times. August 30, 2011.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Paumgarten, Nick. Fresh Prince. New Yorker. November 6, 2006.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Perlroth, Nicole. Robert Greene on Power Ambition Glory. Forbes. June 16, 2009.
8. ↑ Kennedy, Carol (1999), The 48 Laws of Power By Robert Greene, Director Publications, http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/1831022, retrieved January 12, 2014
9. ↑ Adler, Jerry (1998), The Prince Wants a Word With You, Newsweek, https://mseffie.com/assignments/prince/Articles/Prince%20Wants%20a%20Word.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiDpcXotNHpAhW4oHIEHRTFAbwQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1_Jj6Wn13yoxYnAFbxt2q6&cshid=1590492398377, retrieved May 26, 2020
10. ↑ "The 48 Laws of Power". Kirkus Reviews. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-greene/the-48-laws-of-power/.
11. ↑ "48 Laws of Power Syllabus". Millsaps College. http://home.millsaps.edu/grubbmr/Management 637 48 Laws of Power Summer 2010.pdf.
12. ↑ "The 48 Laws of Power Syllabus". Ramapo College. https://www.ramapo.edu/first-year/files/2013/03/12-25.pdf.
13. ↑ Johnson, Lynn. The 50 Cent Bible. Fast Company. September 10, 2009.
14. ↑ Garner, Dwight. The Readers Behind Bars Put Books to Many Uses. The New York Times . October 19, 2010.
15. ↑ Burkeman, Oliver (September 4, 2009). "When the gangsta rapper met the self-help guru". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/sep/05/50-cent-robert-greene-interview.
16. ↑ "Kanye West – Primetime Lyrics". RapGenius. http://rapgenius.com/Kanye-west-primetime-lyrics#note-312947.
17. ↑ UGK (August 7, 2007). Living This Life (music video). Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
18. ↑ Central Cee – Ungrateful, https://genius.com/Central-cee-ungrateful-lyrics, retrieved 2022-07-04
19. ↑ "Drake – What I'm Thinkin' Right Now Lyrics". RapGenius. http://rapgenius.com/Drake-what-im-thinkin-right-now-lyrics#note-831515.
20. ↑ Li, Shan (2014-12-16). "American Apparel fires founder Dov Charney after internal investigation" (in en-US). https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dov-charney-american-apparel-fired-20141216-story.html.
21. ↑ SFGATE, Michelle Robertson (2017-01-14). "American Apparel to close all of its stores" (in en-US). https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/American-Apparel-to-close-all-of-its-stores-10857158.php.
22. ↑ (video) Books Banned in U.S. Prisons Featured at Minneapolis Art Festival, Unicorn Riot Media, June 25, 2018, https://www.unicornriot.ninja/2018/books-banned-in-u-s-prisons-featured-at-minneapolis-art-festival/
23. ↑ "Bonhams : Joseph Millighan Ambetsa : an annotated copy of the book 'The 48 Laws Of Power' by Robert Greene". https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19036/lot/262/.
24. ↑ "Singer Love to face drugs trial". April 16, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3631147.stm.
25. ↑ Lee, Chris (July 12, 2006). "Laws for an Outlaw Culture". LA Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jul/12/entertainment/et-48laws12.
26. ↑ Paumgarten, Nick (November 6, 2006). "Fresh Prince: Hip-hop's Machiavelli". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/06/061106fa_fact_paumgarten.
27. ↑ Tice, Carol. All’s Fair?. Entrepreneur. November 1, 2006.

## External links

* Power, Seduction and War: The Robert Greene Blog
* Buy 48 law of power online

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*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
*[LC Class]: Library of Congress Classification