Political Leadership - Stories of Power and Politics from Literature and Life

Zusatztext Praise for Robert Coles “Robert Coles should be declared a national treasure.” –The Washington Post Book World “[Coles is a] social scientist! humanist! political activist! psychiatrist! minstrel! wandering storyteller! mystic! wise man! poet! dissenter! and! yes! I’ll use the word! secular saint.” –Chicago Tribune Informationen zum Autor Robert Coles is the author of many books, including the Pulitzer Prize—winning Children of Crisis. A professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, he is also the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard. He lives in Massachusetts. Klappentext From ancient times to the present day, here are indispensable insights on political power and leadership as expressed in the novels, plays, and poetry of the world's greatest artists and intellectuals. Adapted from a course taught at Harvard by Pulitzer Prize—winning author Robert Coles, Political Leadership features scenes, stories, and speeches that pierce to the core of how and why some lead and others follow. In Felix Holt, the Radical, George Eliot observes that progressive reformers can be even more self-serving than their conservative counterparts; in The Prime Minister, Anthony Trollope suggests that honest men must cope with the corruption of politics-or leave leadership entirely to the crooked; and the works of Nadine Gordimer and George Orwell reveal that those who overturn tyrants often envy their power and repeat their mistakes. Anyone trying to understand today's confused and violent world will be both challenged and inspired by this unique and important collection.Chapter 1 I Political Stories from the Past We live in history, its heritage a powerful force in our present-day lives. And so it goes with nations as well. Past political errors or breakthroughs inform the way we think about nationhood and how we act as citizens in the country we call our own. In the following political stories of the past, we see how the process of politics is enacted by those who rule, and how it impacts those who follow. Through the eyes of tragedians of long ago, such as Sophocles, and later through the words of nineteenth-century novelists of England and Russia, such as George Eliot and Dostoyevsky, we learn how average people tried to live, and tried to make do, in families and neighborhoods. But these same introspective writers were also attempting to render the political side of our lives—depicting the leaders to whom we acquiesce, and the doubt (even, at times, outright disapproval or disdain) we have with respect to them. Here, then, are political moments of the past, given the suggestive life high art can convey to a reader’s later time. Through them, we see how politics works—we witness the manipulations of power and ambition, the art of compromise, the rise and fall of political careers, and the desire to conquer. In short, the past becomes the teacher of the present. George Eliot George Eliot (1819–80), the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, is regarded as one of the great Victorian novelists, especially noted for her insightful psychological characterizations. Her best-known novel, Middlemarch (1871–72), follows the emotional and intellectual frustrations of Dorothea Brooke. As Oscar Wilde once remarked in 1897, Eliot “is the embodiment of philosophy in fiction.” In Felix Holt, the Radical, written in 1866, Eliot observes that progressive reformers can be even more self-interested than their conservative opponents. Young Harold Transome returns to England from the American colonies with a self-made fortune, then scandalizes his district by running for Parliament as a Radical. This excerpt from Felix Holt introduces the concept of “political consciousness,” which can be...

Product details

• Authors: Robert Coles, George Eliot, George Orwell, Tols
• Assisted by: Robert Coles (Editor)
• Publisher: Modern Library PRH US
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 18.10.2005
• EAN: 9780812971705
• ISBN: 978-0-8129-7170-5
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 133 mm x 203 mm x 25 mm
• Subject: Non-fiction book