What books are good about nakedly discussing power dynamics (in politics, in interpersonal relationships, within corporations, etc)? The two listed in the title usually come to mind as recommended books. I’ve read the art of war, but not the prince. These books are hundreds of years out of date though and were written back when the humanities (psychology, sociology, etc) were very embryonic compared to today.
I suggest Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War as the best thing ever done along these lines. One of the best histories ever written and covers the same ground as The Prince without being a step by step guide to evil, but rather a step by step guide to avoiding the consequences of evil.
But in Macchiavelli’s defense, I don’t think he was evil or endorsed evil. He was a committed republican who went to prison for his ideals, after all.
So, I don’t think he was actually a FAN of the evil Cesare Borgia- rather, I think he admired Borgia the way a zoologist might admire a tiger as a perfect killing machine.
Macchiavelli recognized that, whether a leader is a good man OR a bad man, he needs to understand how to wield power and how to manipulate people. Lyndon Johnson understood how to wield power in Washington in a way more idealistic liberals did not. It wasn’t pretty, but through hook AND crook, though flattery AND threats, through sweet talk AND bribery, Johnson got the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed.
Another in this vein is Alfred Mahan’s “The Influence of Sea Power upon History”. I’m reading Clausewitz now, and Mahan after that. The biggest problem with both of these is that technology has changed the shape of the results of applying the theories.
Sun Tzu is a trip. The text is vague to the point of surrealism, yet he captures a number of crucial strategic elements. Sometimes I think his pithy little sayings would be great to replace I Ching oracular statements; cast the hexagrams and ponder the result. Just as with I Ching, they’re more useful as questions to ponder when considering the current situation, than as predictions or prescriptions (or theories).
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