The two political classics in this book are the product of a time of intense turmoil in Chinese history. Dating from the Period of the Warring States (403-221BC), they anticipate Machiavelli's The Prince by nearly 2000 years. The Art of War is the best known of a considerable body of Chinese works on the subject. It analyses the nature of war, and reveals how victory may be ensured. The Book of Lord Shang is a political treatise for the instruction of rulers. These texts are anything but armchair strategy or ivory-tower speculation. They are serious, urgent and practical responses to the desperate situations in which they were written. They have been immensely influential both inside and outside China.

If there were a code you could learn that would enable you tobecome a wonderful teacher - of any young person in your life -wouldn't you want to learn it? The Essential 55 collects togetherthe amazingly effective rules that Ron Clark used to become anextraordinary - and award-winning - teacher. Through trial anderror, he has distilled fifty-five ideas that have helped himtransform apathetic students, in some of the most deprived andchallenging circumstances, into prize-winning scholars. Coveringall aspects of life - from the classroom to the world, from humaninteractions to cafeteria manners - Ron Clark shows that withdetermination, discipline and regular rewards, the children youstick by will be the children you eventually admire.