12 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Robert Greene's 1998 book distilling 3,000 years of power strategy from historical examples — 48 laws derived from Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Talleyrand, and others — which became a cult classic among entrepreneurs, hip-hop artists, and athletes.
Mary Gaitskill's 1988 debut story collection — exploring sexuality, power, and moral ambiguity in contemporary New York — which established her literary reputation and was adapted into the film Secretary.
French political philosopher who wrote On Power — the most penetrating analysis of the modern state's tendency toward unlimited expansion — and later became a founder of futures studies. His analysis of power as a self-amplifying force that uses liberation movements as instruments of its own aggrandizement anticipated much of post-WWII political theory.
Athenian political figure and Socrates's most formidable opponent in Plato's Gorgias — arguing that the strong should rule the weak, that conventional justice is a slave morality invented by the weak to constrain the naturally superior — anticipating Nietzsche's master morality by 2,400 years.
Chris Matthews's 1988 book on the hard rules of political and business power — distilled from his experience working for Tip O'Neill — presenting the unsentimental tactics of how Washington power actually works.
Stanford Graduate School of Business professor and the most rigorous academic analyst of organizational power — his books Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't and The Human Equation are foundational texts for understanding how power actually works in organizations.
American biographer — author of The Power Broker and the multi-volume The Years of Lyndon Johnson — two Pulitzer Prize winners — the greatest living American biographer — whose work examines how power is accumulated and used in American democracy.
American author — author of The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, and Mastery — who synthesizes historical case studies into amoral strategic frameworks — the most widely cited author in hip-hop lyrics and the mentor of Ryan Holiday.
Robert Greene's 1998 guide to acquiring and maintaining power — synthesizing historical examples into 48 laws (from 'Never outshine the master' to 'Crush your enemy totally') — the most widely read amoral strategy book and the most cited non-fiction text in hip-hop.
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith's 2011 popularization of selectorate theory — arguing that all political systems (democratic and authoritarian) follow the same logic: leaders do what keeps their coalition of supporters satisfied, and the smaller the required coalition, the more corrupt and extractive the regime.
Robert Caro's 1974 biography of Robert Moses — the unelected New York City parks commissioner who shaped the city's physical form through 44 years of power — Pulitzer Prize — the greatest American political biography and one of the greatest works of American nonfiction.
A posthumous compilation of Friedrich Nietzsche's notes assembled by his sister Elisabeth — presenting the will to power concept as the fundamental drive underlying all human motivation — whose intellectual legitimacy is disputed as Elisabeth manipulated the selection.