An Anglo-American Plutarch emulates Plutarch by comparing and contrasting the lives of ten famous British and ten famous American historical figures. Each of the pairs is given an historical introduction, followed by interpretive essays on each of the paired lives, and a summary of their historical significance. Ten pairs of men and women are presented, the first of these treated is Benjamin Franklin who is seen as both American and English. Other pairs include: Conservative Revolutionaries Edmund Burke and John James; Ardent Abolitionists William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglas; Soldiers of Fortune Duke of Wellington and Andrew Jackson; Indomitable Ladies Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton; Votaries of the Law Frederick E. Pollock and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; Sister Reformers Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Mary Ritter Beard; Tribunes of the Working Classes James Keir Hardie and Eugene V. Debs; Kindred Spirits Cecil Spring Rice and Theodore Roosevelt; Opposite Numbers? David Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson; and Great Men of the Century Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt.

An Anglo-American Plutarch emulates Plutarch by comparing and contrasting the lives of ten famous British and ten famous American historical figures. Each of the pairs is given an historical introduction, followed by interpretive essays on each of the paired lives, and a summary of their historical significance. Ten pairs of men and women are presented, the first of these treated is Benjamin Franklin who is seen as both American and English. Other pairs include: Conservative Revolutionaries-Edmund Burke and John James; Ardent Abolitionists-William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglas; Soldiers of Fortune-Duke of Wellington and Andrew Jackson; Indomitable Ladies-Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton; Votaries of the Law-Frederick E. Pollock and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; Sister Reformers-Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Mary Ritter Beard; Tribunes of the Working Classes-James Keir Hardie and Eugene V. Debs; Kindred Spirits-Cecil Spring Rice and Theodore Roosevelt; Opposite Numbers?-David Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson; and Great Men of the Century-Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt.

Throughout the early modern period, political theorists in France and England drew on the works of Plutarch to offer advice to kings and princes. Elizabeth I herself translated Plutarch in her later years, while Jacques Amyot's famous translations of Plutarch's The Parallel Lives led to the wide distribution of his work and served as a key resource for Shakespeare in the writing of his Roman plays, through Sir Thomas North's English translations. Rebecca Kingston's new study explores how Plutarch was translated into French and English during the Renaissance and how his works were invoked in political argument from the early modern period into the 18th century, contributing to a tradition she calls 'public humanism'. This book then traces the shifting uses of Plutarch in the Enlightenment, leading to the decline of this tradition of 'public humanism'. Throughout, the importance of Plutarch's work is highlighted as a key cultural reference and for its insight into important aspects of public service.

"The Parallel Lives of Plutarch (A.D. 45-120), a vast series of paired biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen, have always been one of the most widely read works of classical literature. In this new study, discussions of Plutarch's literary techniques and moral conceptions are combined with case studies of a number of paired Lives (Pyrrhos - Marius, Phokion - Cato Minor, Lysander - Sulla, and Coriolanus - Alcibiades). As the author demonstrates, the parallel structure of the Lives is not only vital to their interpretation but also reflects a Greek attempt to appropriate and make sense of the pasts of both Greece and Rome."--BOOK JACKET.

Donald Trump in Historical Perspective: Dead Precedents is a collection of chapters that utilizes the thinking of historians, philosophers, and political scientists to explore historical parallels to the presidency of Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States of America. This collection provides an extensive analysis on the ways Trump’s impulsiveness, breaking of norms, and disregard for longstanding democratic pieties, caused him to represent a definitive end to the "American century," an era when American self-confidence, steadiness, and leadership, even in the face of titanic challenges, were almost universally taken for granted. Yet this book also argues how in the longer sweep of history, Trump is a familiar figure in the turbulent life of democracies. These in-depth chapters reveal the ways Trump represents the anti-institutionalist, the populist demagogue, the would-be authoritarian who exploits electoral and political vulnerabilities to gain and hold power. Through these detailed evaluations, these chapters suggest that Trump is not radically unique, but that democracies have produced many previous versions of the Trump phenomenon. This book is essential reading for scholars and students in political science, political theory, history, and leadership. This book is also noteworthy for readers interested in key developments in contemporary American democracy. One of its greatest appeals is its extensive look into leadership on an international scale, from Donald Trump’s global significance to various explorations of non-American leaders, and the comparisons that can be made.