The Art of War
The Art of War vs The 48 Laws of Power vs The Prince
They are shelved together and recommended in the same breath, yet they were written across two and a half thousand years, for three different readers, about three different kinds of power.
The shortest way to tell them apart is to ask who each book is talking to. Sun Tzu addresses a ruler and the general who fights for him. Machiavelli addresses a prince who has a state or wants one. Robert Greene addresses anyone who has to rise among rivals and superiors.
| The Art of War | The Prince | The 48 Laws of Power | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Sun Tzu | Niccolò Machiavelli | Robert Greene, a Joost Elffers production |
| Written | Traditionally around 500 BC | About 1513, printed 1532 | Published 1998 |
| Length | 13 chapters, about 10,500 words (Giles) | 26 chapters, about 32,700 words (Marriott) | 48 laws, 430 pages in the first edition |
| Written for | A ruler and his generals | A prince: it is dedicated to Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici | A general reader |
| Built from | Short numbered verses | Chapters on how states are won and held | One law per chapter, argued through stories from history |
The Art of War: win before the battle
Sun Tzu writes about war between states, and he treats fighting as the most expensive way to get what you want. His chapters cover planning, supply, terrain, marching, fire and spies, and his best-known lines are about not fighting at all:
“Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
The cost of war is never far from the page. Chapter II says it plainly:
“There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.”
It is also the shortest of the three by far. The whole text can be read in under an hour, and it is free to read here, chapter by chapter.
The Prince: how a state is kept
Machiavelli wrote for a man who governs, and his subject is how principalities are acquired and held: by arms, by fortune, by crime, by the favour of citizens. His chapter titles read like a ruler's checklist. Chapter XVII asks whether it is better to be loved than feared; chapter XXIII is on how flatterers should be avoided. The answer in chapter XVII is the line everyone remembers:
“it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.”
Sun Tzu advises a general how to beat another army. Machiavelli advises a prince how to survive his own subjects, his allies and his neighbours.
The 48 Laws of Power: power among people
Greene's book is modern and much longer. Each of its forty-eight laws gets a chapter of its own, argued through stories of people from history who broke the law or kept it; the first is “Never Outshine the Master.” Its ground is the court, the office and the career, rather than the battlefield or the state, and its tone is colder than either older book. Reviewers have said so: Kirkus called it distasteful if its authors are serious.
Which should you read first?
The Art of War. It takes under an hour, it is the oldest, and more of its lines circulate than are actually in it: of sixteen famous Sun Tzu quotes I checked, five do not appear in the book at all (the check). Read The Prince next if politics is your interest. Read The 48 Laws of Power last, and argue with it as you go.
And The Book of Five Rings?
It is the other book people pair with Sun Tzu. Miyamoto Musashi wrote it between 1643 and 1645, in five scrolls named Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Void, and it comes from a swordsman: much of it is about single combat, timing and the schools of fencing he had seen. The Art of War thinks in armies. The Book of Five Rings thinks in one sword at a time.
Questions readers ask
Which is older, The Art of War or The Prince?
The Art of War, by about two thousand years. Tradition places Sun Tzu around 500 BC; Machiavelli wrote The Prince around 1513, and it was printed in 1532.
Is The Prince longer than The Art of War?
Roughly three times longer: about 32,700 words in W. K. Marriott's translation against about 10,500 in Lionel Giles' translation of Sun Tzu.
Who wrote The 48 Laws of Power?
Robert Greene, in a book produced with Joost Elffers. Viking published it in 1998.
Where can I read The Art of War for free?
All thirteen chapters are on this site, one page each: read The Art of War online.