{"product_id":"power-how-influence-authority-and-control-shaped-civilization-9781972041000","title":"Power: How Influence, Authority, and Control Shaped Civilization","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePower is not held. It is structured.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost people think power lives in leaders: presidents, generals, kings, executives, and revolutionaries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThey are wrong.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePower lives in systems.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Power: How Influence, Authority, and Control Shaped Civilization, Joel Thomas examines power not as a personality trait, moral virtue, or political slogan, but as a structural force that determines how societies are built, governed, stabilized, challenged, and eventually transformed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcross history, civilizations rise and fall not simply because of great leaders or decisive battles, but because power organizes itself through recurring mechanisms: authority, coercion, legitimacy, wealth, information, institutions, culture, technology, fear, and consent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book reveals hidden architecture behind mechanisms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInside, you will examine: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy authority is cheaper and more durable than force\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow institutions outlive the people who create them\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy legitimacy is one of power's greatest force multipliers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow economic, military, political, cultural, and technological power convert into one another\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy systems resist reform even after their failures become obvious\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHow power hides in rules, routines, incentives, traditions, and accepted assumptions\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing from political theory, history, sociology, and institutional analysis. Power follows the structural patterns that have shaped human civilization from pre-state societies and sacred kingship to empires, and modern systems of control.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is not a leadership book.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is not a motivational argument.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is not a simple history of rulers and wars.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIt is a diagnostic framework for understanding how power actually works.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Nomical Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781972041000\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 262\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.68lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.55d","brand":"Joel Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52934117785781,"sku":"9781972041000","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/power-how-influence-authority-and-control-shaped-civilization-9781972041000","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}