The Art of War by Sun Tzu II (2004, Hardcover)

This book is on all military book recomondition lists. It was very informative and amazing to see that so many years ago they were thinking so strategic when it comes to war.

Before buying, I read the reviews on about 8 or so books and decided to look at the probable accuracy of the translation by the most qualified person from the oldest known text, using the most easy method to present the information. Note: few of the 8 had a clue of what they were doing or maybe just wanted to tell a story. Still there were a couple choices. I chose the one with the most pages and also with the best form of presentation. If you choose this one you will see what I mean.

FIRST;
Sun Tzu started out in the family armament business as Sun Wu and there is no evidence that he was literate. The Art of War was written after his death most likely by or for his children and based on what he was able to teach them. TODAY YOU WOULD CALL SUN TZU A CONSULTANT.

SECOND: There are at least a dozen books by this title. However, the actual Art of War text can be read in about 10 or less minutes.

THIRD: The original text such as it was copied, time after time, in Chinese, by Chinese, would have many artistic licenses taken by the Chinese and this has had 3000 years to add and subtract by the copy person. Chinese language that old was a very limited language and very difficult to interpret by someone that was not there at the time.

FOURTH: This particular book was written many years ago and the text presented here is in the language style of 19th century England and takes a little getting used to. You will need a very old Websters library size dictionary to get the correct meaning from time to time. The writer did take the time to do the research and make the presentation in a manner which the reader can easily visualize and will have confidence in the best possible accuracy.

FIFTH: I would assume that the readers of this book have some military and hunting experience and can easily predict that observations of military actions in the recent past will show that the best and most obvious educated choices were not made in all cases. If General Lee had access to this particular text he would have made it required reading for all of his officers and the Civil War might have gone very differently.

I bought this book about a month ago because it was the textbook of my class. I was going to buy it at school bookstore, but I found it at half.com which was much cheaper than school bookstore include shipping and tax too. It delivered on time.

Written as a strategy for fighting battles but also serves as a handbook of sorts for people in leadership positions. Not everything is those book applies but there are several points made that can be relative to today's leaders.