I was also forced to read Power and Exchange as a graduate student at UCLA. In a Political Sociology course, perhaps the second best class I have ever taken, the Professor teased out the incredibly dense thinking of Blau. Let me note that I am applying the concept to resource sharing among libraries and believe that Blau did "win-win" thinking many years before the concept(and now cliche) gained cache.

I first read Exchange and Power in Social Life as a graduate student in the early 1970s. What amazes me is to reread it in 1999 to see how Blau explains the way in which power is legitimated through exchange. His insights of 30 years ago now help us understand how large organizations can gain even greater (legitimate) power through exchanges across their boundaries--like police departments opening themselves to community policing or universities learning how to manage their increasingly permeable boundaries. This is "must" reading for any students of organizations of the 21st century!