14 min • 4 lectures
This four-lecture course examines the life of Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power. Lecture 1 covers Greene’s early years in Los Angeles, his studies in classical literature at UC Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the roughly eighty jobs he held before meeting book packager Joost Elffers in Italy in 1995. That meeting produced the proposal for The 48 Laws of Power. Lecture 2 reviews the 1998 publication of the book, its rapid adoption by hip-hop artists such as 50 Cent and Jay-Z, its prohibition in several prisons, and Greene’s later collaboration with 50 Cent on The 50th Law. Lecture 3 turns to the 2012 book Mastery, Greene’s interviews with contemporary experts, and the severe stroke he suffered in August 2018 just before the release of The Laws of Human Nature. Lecture 4 traces Greene’s later emphasis on self-awareness and empathy, his mentorship of Ryan Holiday, and his place in the current Stoic revival. The course presents Greene’s trajectory from gig worker to public intellectual and shows how a life-threatening illness redirected his focus from external tactics to internal discipline.
