A fascinating classic on military science, and one which holds up surprisingly well after thousands of years - despite who-knows-what sorts of corruptions and mistranslations from the original text. Though written at a time when feudal Chinese states fought with each other in battles dominated by the use of chariots, The Art of War has lessons which apply to Hannibal’s march on Rome, the Napoleonic wars, and American misadventures in Iraq. More than that, this book is frequently read with an eye towards strategy in business, politics, or any other competitive venture featuring a clash of adversaries.

As far as that goes, I thought that this book was most interesting in its overall approach to military science. Sun Tzu’s perspective looks at all of the various factors which inform the maintenance of a military: questions of financing, disciplining, maneuvering, provisioning, and so forth. And along each of these axes, there are various constraints in which any military operates, and rules of thumb for the best sort of way to live within those constraints. For example, best not to cut off the retreat of an enemy desperate to get home, because those sorts of soldiers will fight most fiercely, etc.

While some of these questions and constraints apply to problems within other endeavors (for example, the problem of finance and discipline apply to political movements as well as to armies), others do not (troop movements are not, generally speaking, a problem in modern business). Moreover even where the problems are similar, the solutions may not be (militaries can be financed by taxing or plundering; not so for businesses, except in the case of Exxon perhaps).

Really I think it is the mode of thought which Sun Tzu brings to military science which is most useful to political operatives, business executives, or anyone else engaged in a highly adversarial venture. In a few words: it is well worth one’s time to think about the various kinds of problems which one will face, and to learn the best way to handle different sorts of scenarios within these problem areas. On the whole, this book is quite well worth the read, even for someone without the slightest interest in military science generally.