Quarter Life Crisis

” 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene is a “guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the … military principles in war.”. ^[1] It consists of discussions and examples on offensive and defensive strategies from a wide variety of people and conditions such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Lawrence of Arabia, Alexander the Great, and the Tet Offensive.^[2]The book is divided into five parts: Self-Directed Warfare, Organizational (Team) Warfare, Defensive Warfare, Offensive Warfare and Unconventional (Dirty) Warfare. ^[1] Each part contains a differing number of strategies, each in a chapter. Each chapter has a similar layout. Descriptions of battles, political and business situations are accompanied by Greene’s interpretation. There are occasional instructional sections followed by examples. All chapters end with a “Reversal” to give a brief discussion of where the strategy may not apply, a contrary view or defense. Throughout the book Mr. Greene includes quotes from a variety of sources. These are incorporated in the margins and between sections.

Although one reviewer has called the book “an indispensable book, [which] provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand,”^[3] another one found it “perplexing — if not downright unhealthy — [to publish] a book on the lessons of war for everything but war at a time when we [Canada] are, er, at war.”^[4] Yet another reviewer found the book’s coverage of military history informative, but the political tales “mostly foolish or just plain wrong”.^[5]

The author’s blog -Power, Seduction and War: The Robert Greene Blog - expands on many of the themes from the book which he commonly refers to as The WAR Book.”