Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy: The Timeless Lessons of History's Greatest Empire Builder

Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy: The Timeless Lessons of History's Greatest Empire Builder is theoretically a business strategy book, using the life, history and achievements of Alexander the Great to illustrate successful workplace gambits. However, it is actually a broader work with information both more, and less specific. Before continuing with my review, I will provide you with some background on my relationship both with the history of Alexander the Great and with the business world, because I think your starting places matters greatly in gauging your potential enjoyment of the work.

On the odd chance anyone doesn't know, Alexander the Great was a Macedonian king who by the time of his death at age 33, had conquered nearly the entirety of the known world, and while his empire was divided after his death, the results of it, including the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires, lived on for generations. Alexander the Great is one of the most studied and mythologized people in all of history.

Like many, many people, I have been fascinated by the life, achievement and temperment of Alexander the Great since I was quite young. I remember studying Alexander the Great in grade school history classes as vividly as I remember focusing the major academic paper of my first year of college on Alexander the Great. All of which is to say, that for a lay person, this is a subject I am extremely knowledgeable about. I have easily read at least twenty non-fiction books on the subject, and have also dabbled extensively in the fictionalized novels about Alexander the Great that abound (the trilogies by Renault and Manfredi being perhaps the most notable).

You should also be aware that prior to embarking on a creative career, I worked in business as a mid-level manager for about ten years, and as such the issues in any business book are germain to the experiences and issues I encountered. Additionally though, I worked in the Internet industry, which was rife with people who couldn't manage and read too many management books.