The Art of War

The Book in 1 Sentence

The book that everyone says that is a must-read, but in today's day and age a lot of these are "duh" lessons about how to attack or deceive your enemy.

Brief Review

This book is short, but is full of outstanding information about the methods of warfare. However, the information isn't as well as expanded upon to make it read for the public. Also, having this being read in my ear by "Little Finger" from Game of Thrones (TV and Books) was just weird.

Why I Read this book

The Art of War was on the Commandant's reading list, when it still existed when I was in the Marine Corps, however I never read it. Figured I should, and I finished another book while on my run within the first half hour, I needed a short book.

In-Depth Review (Favorite Quotes)

The biggest hate I have always heard is that this book is that everyone knows this information. I think 2500 years after this was written some of it should be obvious. However, what makes this book important is the fact that it was the first time this information was housed together.

With that being said, if more people read this in certain military positions, some of the events that have happened between two countries at war right now would have not pushed a country out of these previous positions. However, stupidity happens everywhere.

I mentioned that this book was on the Commandant's reading list while I was in the Marines Corps and I never read it. That reading list is a group of books that were divided by rank that the Commandant believed they should read. Most were about military leadership, old history, or legends like the 300 Spartans who stood up against Xerxes at the Battle of Thermopylae. This book was for Privates to Lance Corporals (E1 — E3) and I was a bad Lance Corporal. Mainly because I can't read good (I mean seriously y'all have seen my grammar in these reviews and until I found a grammar check it was bad a times and probably still is). It would have helped for sure as I was prepping for a deployment to Afghanistan at that time.

How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.

Unless shit hits the fan and the USA is at war inside our glorious borders, there will be no way I'd use this. However, if it did, I might use some after a refresher of the limited content.

Rating

There are some good lessons here that I would love to have had Sun Tzu write about the battles he was in. Examples of how they were put in motion rather than just allegory or metaphors. It's around 100 pages. Super short. Too short to recommend and also has such a pointed use, that it doesn't have an extended use. It is a 5.

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