Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall
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What Shakespeare's plays can teach us about modern-day politics William Shakespeare understood power: what it is, how it works, how it is gained, and how it is lost. In The Hollow Crown, Eliot A. Cohen reveals how the battling princes of Henry IV and scheming senators of Julius Caesar can teach us to better understand power and politics today. The White House, after all, is a court--with intrigue and conflict rivaling those on the Globe's stage--as is an army, a business, or a university. And each court is full of driven characters, in all their ambition, cruelty, and humanity. Henry V's inspiring speeches reframe John F. Kennedy's appeal, Richard III's wantonness illuminates Vladimir Putin's brutality, and The Tempest's grace offers a window into the presidency of George Washington. An original and incisive perspective, The Hollow Crown shows how Shakespeare's works transform our understanding of the leaders who, for good or ill, make and rule our world.
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I used to work in politics. Cohen nails the intrigues, pitfalls, and glories of power that I observed in my past life, made ever more poignant by the analogies to the arcs of the dramatis personae of the Shakespeare-verse.
The politics of the court — that of the scheming Plantagenet lords in the court of the feckless Henry VI — permeate our lives more than we like to admit. But the bard's insights remain timeless — like Virgil guiding Dante, Cohen masterfully leads the reader on making sense the intricacies of power and our collective existence.