Customer Reviews

The Essential Art of War

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

This is *the* classic work on military theory and practice. There is no rival so compact and yet complete. It should be required reading and understanding for any member of the armed services and for all Amazon reviewers.

Personally, I prefer the Giles translation (0486425576) but I had to comment here to counter some of the unstudied comments made to date. In the case of Sun Tzu, smaller is better. Other translations are packed with the commentary of people trying to explain what Sun Tzu meant. It is far better to study Sun Tzu and think for yourself first, then see what others had to say. Try not to overanalyze too soon or you will miss the simple yet profound insight of this most brilliant of military thinkers.

Alot of the important writings were left out of this book. It was a bad idea not to read the review before buying.

If you are new to Sun Tzu then this is a very good place to start. It includes much of the original text and has many helpful insights from a true student of Sun Tzu, Ralph D. Sawyer. Ralph is a former student at Harvard and MIT, and a recognized expert in Military and Strategic Studies. Ralph uses his own well respected translation of Sun Tzu's book as the core for this essential edition. This version is for the modern reader. Such a book may or may not appeal to the purist, to the scholar-though it might, but to the lay reader like me this is definitely my cup of tea. I have a complete translation but somehow I just never have found the time to really dive into it. This essential version is just what I needed. This is not milk, this is meat, the prime cut. Sun Tzu, like Lao Tzu-the writer of the "Tao Te Ching"-The Bible of Taoism, can be quite enigmatic and paradoxical at times, especially for the Western reader such as myself. Sun Tzu was a man of great subtlety, a genius.

The Art of War is the earliest known codification of military and political strategy. It is requirred reading in the United States War College. Generals sleep with it on their nightstand. Business leaders read it. Politicians read it. Wannabe leaders read it. Some quotes:

Warfare is the Tao (Way) of deception.
Attack where they are unprepared.
No country has ever profited from protracted warfare.
Conquer those who are easy to conquer.
Race forth where the enemy does not expect it.
Be tranquil and obscure.
Do not move unless it is advantageous.

Sounds a little like Chess to me.

Sun Tzu's the "Art of War" though written well over two-thousand years ago was the beginning of modern military science. The "essential" core is still pertinent today. I should add that this edition is made to be read; it has a hardcover with high quality paper, is easy to read without my reading glasses, and has a very nice ribbon marker.

i admit my initial reaction to the compact little package i received was skeptical at best. When i saw the beautiful, imposing cover and the superb quality i was, at first curious as to why such detail and attention had been put into such an inconsequential-seeming item.

I was a fool.

Like the wisdom contained within, the size of this book is itself a hidden treasure.

After reading the reviews here, i see that most people fail to grasp the true wisdom of this masterpiece. This is not a book of war, it is a book of relationships in ANY form. The people who dismiss the references to weapons as outdated fail to see that the "weapons" that dull are not swords or pikes, but patience, attention, concentration and motivation. Had our government heeded this advice in the war in Iraq we would have been long done there. Long, drawn out wars, fought afar are unsustainable and a war cannot be run as a peaceful endeavor.

I guess the subtleties are lost on some people. Read it, read it again and then re-read it. Perhaps you will begin to see it in a broader light than simply a guide to ancient warfare.

And therein lies the wisdom of its small size. It fits so nicely in my shirt pocket that I will have it with me for a long time. At least until i have it memorized. Then i will be able to incorporate Sun Tzu's wisdom into all my interactions and achieve victory in every battle i enter.

For those of you who fail to see the wisdom of this great work there are some other wise words you may want to consider...

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

This is a tiny book (1" by 1") with an abridged version of the text. This was not evident from the description. It would be a good Christmas stocking stuffer but was not useful as a textbook.

Sure, this is the renowned Art of War, but it needs clarification that this edition of it is a miniature book.

Good book: I had read this book many years ago and it actually has applicability in many competitive situations other than warfare.

Poor BOOK: Unless you are a very small person skip the black book with red and white lettering. It is only about 3 inches high with teeny-tiny lettering. Upon receipt, it went quickly to my circular file and I am now ordering a real, full sized copy.

At nearly 2500 years of age, The Art of War, is a classic by all accepted temporal definitions. Yet it is fair to ask: Is Sun Tzu's work a classic piece of military literature with relevance to or lessons for the student of war in the 21st Century? If yes then it should, as its title implies, give the modern reader a sense of how approaches war with professionalism and competence as a artist would approach canvas or clay before creating a piece worth of display in one of the world's great museums. This expectation does not necessarily imply that The Art of War need provide new revelations about warfare and how to win at the endeavor. If in fact The Art of War can merely illuminate currently accepted "principles" of war in a fashion that allows simple and direct digestion and assimilation of these "principles", it has fulfilled this expectation. In deed it is fair to say that the fifty-eight pages of text Sun Tzu has generated achieves this with clarity and ease. Readers should be aware that The Art of War reads like 5th Century B.C. Chinese philosophy (a la Confucius) but this is part of the simple charm of The Art of War - how else could one distill warfare into so little space? If in fact readers are searching for totally new insights into war and warfare, The Art of War will certainly disappoint. The lessons provided within its prose will in many ways seem obvious, almost too commonplace to be important. Yet, if the reader reflects on Sun Tzu's words for some period of time he/she will come to appreciate the simplicity and value of the words. Also, put ones self in the time of Sun Tzu - then the text becomes considerably more amazing! Some parts of The Art of War are certainly dated by there references to types of weapons or to ancient Chinese conflicts, but in general the "principles" laid out are time-tested and as true today as their were 2500 years ago. Not a minor feat for any book of non-fiction. The Art of War is a one-evening read worth reading - 4.5 stars.

(The version reviewed here is an older copy of Lionel Giles' translation)

This book measures 3"x2.75" It's just too small to be comfortable read.

The book is, of course, a great classic and a historicly significant treatise, which requires no review. One could just as soon "review" Clausewitz or Thucydides.

This particular edition, however, is too small to be convenient. The print is tiny to the point of near illegibility and although I normally read all but the smallest print with my own unaided eyes, this volume required reading glasses. What is more, the attempt to put it all into a tiny "pocket size" volume, makes the reading cumbursome, requiring the page to be turned after every two or three sentences.

This was one of the very few times I've regretted purchasing a book on Amazon. Had I been able to look it over in a book store, I would never have purchased the book in this edition, but would have found a more user-friendly edition to buy and to read.