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Ambition, a history [[electronic resource] ] : from vice to virtue / / William Casey King



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Autore: King Casey (William Casey) Visualizza persona
Titolo: Ambition, a history [[electronic resource] ] : from vice to virtue / / William Casey King Visualizza cluster
Pubblicazione: New Haven, : Yale University Press, 2013
Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (257 p.)
Disciplina: 973
Soggetto topico: Ambition - Political aspects - United States - History
Ambition - Social aspects - United States - History
National characteristics, American - History
Christianity and culture - United States - History
Social values - United States - History
Social change - United States - History
Ambition - Social aspects - England - History
Christianity and culture - England - History
Soggetto geografico: United States Civilization To 1783
England Civilization
Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Nota di contenuto: From Vice to Christian Sin -- Ambition as Sin in Early Modern English Culture : Perilous Acts of Self-Elevation, Subversive Acts of Self-Negation -- The Plague and Countervailing Passions -- Harnessing Ambition in the Age of Exploration -- Epilogue.
Sommario/riassunto: From rags to riches, log house to White House, enslaved to liberator, ghetto to CEO, ambition fuels the American Dream. Americans are driven by ambition. Yet at the time of the nation's founding, ambition was viewed as a dangerous vice, everything from "a canker on the soul" to the impetus for original sin. This engaging book explores ambition's surprising transformation, tracing attitudes from classical antiquity to early modern Europe to the New World and America's founding. From this broad historical perspective, William Casey King deepens our understanding of the American mythos and offers a striking reinterpretation of the introduction to the Declaration of Independence.Through an innovative array of sources and authors-Aquinas, Dante, Machiavelli, the Geneva Bible, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, and many others-King demonstrates that a transformed view of ambition became possible the moment Europe realized that Columbus had discovered not a new route but a new world. In addition the author argues that reconstituting ambition as a virtue was a necessary precondition of the American republic. The book suggests that even in the twenty-first century, ambition has never fully lost its ties to vice and continues to exhibit a dual nature, positive or negative depending upon the ends, the means, and the individual involved.
Titolo autorizzato: Ambition, a history  Visualizza cluster
ISBN: 0-300-18984-2
1-283-90642-2
0-300-18280-5
Formato: Materiale a stampa
Livello bibliografico Monografia
Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
Record Nr.: 9910786138003321
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