Lexington Books
Pages: 236
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4985-4889-2 • Hardback • June 2017 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-1-4985-4890-8 • eBook • June 2017 • $99.50 • (£77.00)
Jeff Diamond received a PhD in political science from McGill University.
Introduction: An Ingratiating World
Part I: Background to the Renaissance Culture of Ingratiation
Chapter 1: Rhetoric and Philosophy in the Renaissance: Speaking Well Versus Speaking Truly
Chapter 2: Relations of Power in Renaissance Society: Humanists and Patrons
Part II: Individuals
Chapter 3: Niccolò Machiavelli: A Conflicted Conception of Manhood
Chapter 4: Desiderius Erasmus: An Accommodating Spirit
Chapter 5: Thomas More: Ingratiation and its Limits
Chapter 6: Michel de Montaigne: “Self”-Preservation
Conclusion: From the Renaissance to the Modern World
Jeff Diamond’s Ingratiation from the Renaissance to the Presentexplores the limits of personal adaptation during the early modern period. The book offers fascinating glimpses into how writers grappled with an issue usually associated with recent and current business people. The book’s broad literary basis shows the ubiquity of its themes to period thinkers. . . . Literary scholars and intellectual historians of the early modern period will benefit from this book’s thoughtful case studies of Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, and Montaigne.
— Journal of Modern History
There is much to engage the reader in this work. The range of Diamond's sources are impressive and he brings to the reader's attention a much wider array of materials than would likely have been part of any standard Renaissance literature survey.
— Sixteenth Century Journal
What do Cicero, Castiglione, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Montaigne, Rousseau, and Lord Chesterfield have in common with Anthony Robbins and Dale Carnegie? All of these figures at one time or another grappled with the necessity for social accommodation, and with the question of just how far one can indulge in this art without sacrificing one’s integrity. In this sprightly study, Jeff Diamond traces the history of ingratiation and of the moral dilemmas to which it gives rise—and this he does with a keen eye for the changing character of the setting within which ingratiation was required.
— Paul A. Rahe, Hillsdale College
There has always been a tension between honesty and agreeableness. When does innocently trying to please others turn into lying and unethical manipulation? This volume brings out the answers of Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, and Montaigne, four of the most original thinkers of the Renaissance. This study provides food for thought for our own negotiation of the proper balance, sometimes delicate and hard to pin down.
— John Christian Laursen, University of California, Riverside
This is a superb study of the great Renaissance writers on the difficult art of presenting oneself in a pleasing way without ceasing to be true to oneself.
— James Tully, Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria