Be Like the Fox, Erica Benner
Be Like the Fox, Erica Benner
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Be Like the Fox
Machiavelli In His World

Author: Erica Benner

Narrator: Karen Saltus

Unabridged: 4 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 06/01/2017


Synopsis

The dramatic, myth-shattering story of how Machiavelli-arguably the most misunderstood thinker of all time-fought to change his corrupt world.

Since the publication of The Prince five centuries ago, Machiavelli has been associated with political amorality. But that characterization is unfair. In Be Like the Fox, Erica Benner sets the record straight: far from the ruthless “Machiavellian” henchman that people think he was, Machiavelli emerges here as a profound ethical thinker who fought to uphold high moral standards and restore the democratic freedoms of his beloved Florence.

Shaking the dust from history, Benner masterfully interweaves Machiavelli’s words with those of his friends and enemies, giving us a biography with all the energy of fiction. Through dialogues and diaries, we witness dramatic episodes, including Savonarola’s fiery sermons against the elite in Florence’s piazza, Machiavelli’s secret negotiations with Caterina Sforza at the court of Forlí, and the Florentines’ frantic preparations to resist Pope Julius’s plan to over-throw their Republic.

Benner relates how Machiavelli rose as an advisor in the Florentine Republic, advancing the city’s interests as a diplomat and military strategist, only to become a political pariah when the Republic was defeated. His egalitarian politics made him an enemy of the Medici family, and his secular outlook put him at odds with religious zealots. But he soon learned to mask his true convictions, becoming a great artist of foxlike dissimulation. Machiavelli’s masterpiece, The Prince, was in fact a critique of princely power, but the critique had to be veiled, written as it was after the Medici triumphed over the Republic.

In Be Like the Fox, the most accurate and compelling portrait of Machiavelli yet, Benner recounts the gripping story of a brilliant political thinker, showing that Machiavelli’s ideas-about democratic institutions, diplomacy, and freedom-are more important than ever.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Glen on September 04, 2017

I won this book in a goodreads drawing. Machiavelli is a controversial figure in history. Erica Benner tries to explain the man and his writing in the context of his time and his experiences. She argues that much of what we think we know of him comes from a knee jerk letter written by an Englishman,......more

Goodreads review by Richard on April 21, 2019

I came to this book never having read The Prince and generally being pretty uninformed about the political drama and craziness of Italy in the 15th and 16th Centuries (I never even watched The Borgias -- although now I'm tempted!), which I thought would make me a less than ideal reader of this book.......more

Goodreads review by SDestinie on October 31, 2021

While it was fascinating to see that Nicolo Machiavelli was a little bit like Dennis the Menace, in fact, almost the class clown at times, but brilliant, person, the book really really dragged much of the time. I loved the fact that the author points out time and again how Machiavelli was marked by......more