Average Rating: 
Rating:  - How to run a war or Business
Sun Tzu "The Art of War" was excellent. This book is a great book on strategy. Whether you command a nations army, war games or a moderen business. If the reader uses some of these war tactics and strategies in the modern world, they may find it easy to relate. Thus it is easy to relate to this book. Even rivals in sports and entertainment can be outwitted by the wisdom in this book. It also adds examples of some actions, which show how these sayings and writings apply to the real world.So no matter what you were looking for in this book, whether it be business, sports, war games, or actual wars, you can be sure to learn more on how to best deal with the situation through the strategies in this book. The book is timeless....and should be required reading for all persons.
Rating:  - Overrated and over-hyped
This is a legendary book and has gotten a lot of play these days, from Wall St. to Hollywood types--including such notables as writer James Clavell. While I respect Clavell and am very familiar with the book, frankly, I don't see what all the commotion is about. The supposedly profound psychological principles that can be used to outwit your opponent, among many other strategems discussed, I found to be pretty elementary and not particularly astute. Perhaps for it's time this qualified as state of the art, but not anymore. Most of them are, or should be, pretty obvious.Sun Tzu's observations about military strategy also seemed of limited applicability today since they pertain to ground wars with very primitive weapons. For example, his point that one should obtain the superior vantage point and position from which to attack, while valid, would be understood today by the greenest officer just out of his military strategy and tactics course at the academy. There are some occasionally useful tidbits here, but overall, I suspect anybody trying to use these tactics in exactly the same way today in a confrontation with modern ground weapons wouldn't be a happy camper. To give just a couple of examples of this, in John Keegan's excellent book on the history of warfare, The Face of Battle, he points out that in the Battle of the Somme in World War I artillery accounted for 90 per cent of the casualties--not the infantry. The importance of artillery has continued to this day, something which didn't exist at all in Sun Tzu's time. As Keegan has pointed out, the first "modern" battle in the sense that it was the artillery that carried the day was in the 12th century Battle of Agincourt, where the much smaller English army using longbowmen decisively defeated a much larger French army, inflicting heavy casualties on the other side. Secondly, the greater speed, destructive power, and maneuverability of modern armies, especially in the case of mechanized armor, dictates that the overall strategy and details of ground engagements will be substantially different from those in Sun Tzu's time. (I could cite other examples, since we haven't even considered the advent of air power, but I'll leave it at that). The best way to appreciate this book is in the context of a classic that represented a high point in the military thinking of its time, but which has since been superceded. Basically this amounts to saying the work has historical value, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't go too much further than that. Also (assuming the story is true), anybody who would behead two of the Emperor's most beautiful concubines because they giggled during a marching exercise for the Emperor is a real jerk and should apply for membership in the Nazi Hall of Fame (more like Hall of Shame). Finally, as seen from the editions of this book that purport to teach useful business principles derived from Sun Tzu's book-- westerners continually misinterpret Oriental classics like this and apply them to situations where they are not applicabl--and where even the Chinese wouldn't think of using them. Again, this is a book about war, and has very little relevance to business. You'd think people would have taken a clue from the title, "The Art of War." It's doesn't say, "The Art of Business." What part of the title didn't they understand? In fairness, I would sum up by saying Sun Tzu's book represents an important historical contribution, but it has been over- hyped far beyond its real worth to the modern reader, and inappropriately applied in other areas, such as business, where it has very little, if any, real relevance or value. (P.S. Perhaps I would find B. H. Liddell-Hart's or Camille Clauswitz's books more profound as classics on war, as I did Kegan's books? I may try reading them and see if I find them more interesting and valuable than the Art of War. I have read articles about both books over the years, and they do seem more impressive, but I haven't actually read the originals yet. If I do, I will post a review on them here, as with the Sun Tzu book. Hopefully, I will have something more positive to say on these two also venerable classics.)
Rating: - The Art of War..or Peace?..both.
This is the first edition of "The Art of War" I've read and I'm glad I made the decision to pick this one up. Cleary does a remarkable job in the introduction of explaining Sun Tzu's philosophy. The peak efficiency of knowledge and strategy is to make conflict altogether unnecessary: "To overcome others' armies without fighting is the best of skills."Also, Cleary goes into detail of the Taoist aspect of the text by using quotes and examples from other ancient writings including the Tao Te Ching. A rather nice touch to this edition is that following each of Tzu's sentences or paragraphs (written in boldface to be indentified easily) are the further explanations of various Chinese commentators from Cao Cao in 155-200 C.E. to Ho Yanxi of the Sung Dynasty. These commentaries help to easily show the finer points of each ideology. Overall, a quality work that I'd recommend to anyone interested in reading "The Art of War".
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