The Art of War [Audio CD]

Sun Tzu (Author), Joe Mantegna (Narrator), Ralph D. Sawyer (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

small tear easily taped, good as new, most important 4 CD's

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Recorded Books (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402561016
• ISBN-13: 978-1402561016
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book for MBA students, October 2, 2004

By 

H. Arsham "Dr. Professor Hossein Arsham" (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of War (Audio CD)

The Art of War was the speech of Chinese famous strategist Sun Zi (or Sun Tzu), who lived about 2500 years ago. The Art of War represents the earliest existing codification of military and political strategy, and is probably the most widely-read work on strategy in history. Sun Tzu's book is widely studied by the business and military communities today. At least seven different translations appeared in the last two decades alone, including an 'official' copy of the version used by the People's Liberation Army complete with Marxist dialectic and critique. Although The Art of War is about War, Sun Zi strongly advocates that the best way is 'win without a war.' 'The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.' (Ch. 3). If you know both you and your enemy, you can win all the war; if you only know one side, you only have 50% to win the war; if you know nothing of both sides, you will lose all the war. In the above speech, we can find how important that the information is. In management science, a model built on little information seldom can solve the problem in our real life. So whenever we plan to do a project, the first thing first is to get information (as complete as possible). To get vital information, Sun Zi recommended five usages of spying (Ch. 13). Knowledge about your commentators, saves you money, Spying can save thousands of soldiers' lives and the wealth of the nation. Information is so important, a wise general must know how to hide its own information. Sun Zi says that all warfare is based on deception (Ch. 1). When able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. In management science, we must be very careful to collect information and analyze what information is true and what is not. We also must know how to protect our own information. The Art of War has 13 chapters on 28 pages. Some chapters have been selected as texts in Chinese middle school. A lot of Chinese know the following story, but it cannot be found in The Art of War. General Tianji of Qi kingdom liked horse racing. One day, the king of Qi wanted to complete his horses with Tianji's. They divided their horses into three classes. Because Tianji's each class horse was weaker than the same class horse of the king's, Tianji lost all three classes competition. Tianji was downhearted and left. Tianji's friend Sunzi saw this and told Tianji that he can help Tianji to win the race. 'I have no better horse,' Tianji says. 'No, you don't need.' Sunzi said. 'You can use your third class horse to complete with king's first class horse; use your first to compete with his second; use your second to compete with his third.' Tanji did as what he had been told and won the racing.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Wisdom Read in Timeless Fashion, August 31, 2003

By 

Martin P. McCarthy (North Chili, New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of War (Audio CD)

Sun Tzu's "Art of War" audiobook translated by Ralph D. Sawyer and performed by Joe Mantegna is an interesting little trip.

"Art of War" is broken up into "Lessons" which, at first blush, appear to be nothing more that contrite truisms. This is only amplified by Mantegna's deliberate and articulating cadence. However, it is both unfair and unwise to characterize the "Lessons" as contrite or as a collection of truisms. Calling the lessons contrite diminishes the fact that there should be a requisite amount of thought given to the words. The lessons are wisdom that ought not to be devoured but rather to be savored. For his part, Mantegna's delivery accentuates the fact that the lessons are to be savored as he delivers the lines of the lesson at a deliberate and steady pace. The "lessons" are also not truisms. Yes, it is true that the "lessons" are easy to read but history teaches us that the wisdom of the lessons are hard to master.

There is also some background historical material written by Ralph D. Sawyer following Mantegna's rendering of the "lessons." The historical materials are excellent but are unfortunate based upon their brevity.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much military history., May 16, 2007

By 

Jeremy (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of War (Audio CD)

The Art of War is what it is and there are many different translations and commentaries. The question is what this version adds to the work. Ralph D. Sawyer is a "Chinese warfare scholar" and it shows. His commentary is an essay on the miliatry environment in which Sun Tzu's theories were created. There is lots of information on how particular military campaigns of the time may have influenced Sun Tzu's thinking and how Sun Tzu's work may have influenced particular military campaigns. On the surface this sounds interesting. The problem is that it reads like a high-school history text. Lots of armies, regions, and leader names that are unfamiliar and similar. Lots of accounts of the numbers of soldiers in the armies, the styles of deployement, etc. If you have an interest in Chinese military history the commentary may be very interesting - for me, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. However, there are only a couple audio versions available, so this is still worth it if you want to "hear" Sun Tzu's work. But I recommend you turn it off when the commentary begins. Your milage may vary.