Strategic Advantage

Yes — I’m familiar with Strategic Advantage: How to Win in War, Business, and Life by William J. Bahr. Goodreads+2Goodreads+2 I can give you a summary of what it's about, what it does well, and its limitations, and how it compares to other strategy books, if that’s useful.

What it is

The book surveys 87 master strategists from across history and different fields (military, business, politics, sports, etc.), extracting their strategies and practices. Goodreads+1
Bahr distills these into what he calls the “high five” principles of strategic advantage — ready-to-recall tools or heuristics for competing, cooperating, making moves that give advantage. bahrnoproducts.com+1
It covers a wide variety of contexts: war, business, politics, interpersonal dynamics, even martial arts. Goodreads+1
There is also attention to ethics, to how strategy interacts with moral or character questions. Goodreads

What it does well

Breadth of examples & historical depth. Because it draws from so many different strategists, you get exposure to many forms of strategic thinking, from ancient to modern. This helps you see patterns — what tends to recur across very different contexts.
Practical heuristics. The “high five” principles are meant to distill insight into actionable tools rather than only theoretical discourse. For people who want quick, usable insights, that’s strong.
Cross-domain application. It emphasizes that strategy isn’t just for generals or CEOs; the same underlying ideas can apply to self-improvement, competition, cooperation, persuasion, etc. That makes it more generally useful.
Accessibility. From reviews, people like that the book is well-illustrated, has “lessons learned” summaries at chapter ends, etc., which help in digesting and applying ideas. Goodreads+1

Limitations / what to watch out for

Trade-off between depth and breadth. Because it covers so many strategists, it can’t go super deep into any one strategy or domain. If you want detailed tools for, say, digital business strategy, or military logistics, might need more specialized sources.
Generalization risk. There is always a risk when extracting “universal” principles from historical examples: context matters. What worked for Napoleon or Sun Tzu may not map directly to highly networked businesses, or to modern geopolitical complexity. So some principles might need adaptation.
Possibility of “laundry list” style. With many figures and many principles, there’s a chance the book can feel like it’s covering a lot but not giving a deep framework for choosing which strategy makes sense where. The high-five heuristics help, but you still need judgment.
Ethical tension. Because strategy often involves power, competition, and sometimes conflict, there may be tension between what “wins” and what is ethical in your context. The book does have an ethics section, but readers will need to interpret and decide where their own boundaries are.

How it compares / when you might prefer it

If you’re choosing whether to read this vs other strategy books, here’s how it fits into the landscape:

If you want…	Then Strategic Advantage is good	But you might also want…
A wide survey of strategic thinkers + versatile templates you can apply in many kinds of competitive/cooperative situations	Yes, that’s a strength of Bahr’s book.	Books like The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene (for war-/conflict-influenced strategy) or Strategy: A History by Lawrence Freedman (for deep theoretical + historical grounding).
Practical heuristics & summaries rather than deep theoretical models	Yes.	For more depth, Competitive Strategy (Michael Porter), Good Strategy/Bad Strategy (Richard Rumelt) give deeper frameworks.
Inspiration from historical or cross-domain examples (military, political, sports, etc.)	Yes, many examples in Bahr.	If you want strategy more focused on business or tech, something like Playing to Win by Lafley & Martin, or The Strategy Book by Dearlove & Fry might give more targeted applicability.

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What it is

What it does well

Limitations / what to watch out for

How it compares / when you might prefer it