The central thesis of The Art of Seduction is that seduction is a form of social warfare. Greene argues that direct confrontation is often counterproductive. Instead, true power lies in the ability to entice, to lower defenses, and to make others willingly submit to one's will. The book is rooted in a historical materialist approach; Greene draws heavily from the courts of Renaissance Europe, the salons of 18th-century France, and the lives of notorious figures like Casanova and Marilyn Monroe. He posits that in a world where people are starved for attention and drama, the seducer holds the ultimate power. The "art," therefore, is the ability to manufacture a reality that the target desperately wants to inhabit.