I own the three bestsellers (48 laws, 33 strategies, art of seduction). Calling it modernization of The Prince is wrong (I also own The Prince AND Discourses on Livy) - it is more a condensate of the works of people he refers to and cites: Niccolo Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Baltasar Gracian, Otto Von Bismarck, Carl Von Clausevitz, Napoleon, Platon, Aristoteles, Friedrich Nietzche...

All the great classics - as such Greene's work is an excellent intro into the world of classic political and strategic theory... What I have realized after reading some of these classic writer's works is that many of philosophers that are so popular today were nothing short of charlatans - this field (strategy and politics) has been so well researched that classics are indeed the best reference.

I particularly love Sun Tzu and Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy (you won't understand prince unless you have read Discourses - Prince on its own is a dangerous book. For me it is more a satirical piece and if you fail to grasp sarcasm in it you might get burned).