Want to be cunning? You might wish you were more clever, more flexible, able to cut a few corners without getting caught, to dive now and again into iniquity and surface clutching a prize. You might want to roll your eyes at those slaves of duty who play by the rules. Or you might think there's something sleazy about that stance, even if it does seem to pay off. Does that make you a chump? With pointedly mischievous prose, Don Herzog explores what's alluring and what's revolting in cunning. He draws on a colorful range of sources: tales of Odysseus; texts from Machiavelli; pamphlets from early modern England; salesmen's newsletters; Christian apologetics; plays; sermons; philosophical treatises; detective novels; famous, infamous, and obscure historical cases; and more. The book is in three parts, bookended by two murderous churchmen. "Dilemmas" explores some canonical moments of cunning and introduces the distinction between knaves and fools as a "time-honored but radically deficient scheme." "Appearances" assails conventional approaches to unmasking. Surveying ignorance and self-deception, "Despair?" deepens the case that we ought to be cunning--and then sees what we might say in response. Throughout this beguiling book, Herzog refines our sense of what's troubling in this terrain. He shows that rationality, social roles, and morality are tangled together--and trickier than we thought.

Offensive language, insolent behavior, slights, brawls, and scandals come alive in Ruth Goodman’s uproarious history for mischievous Anglophiles. With this “impeccable” (BBC History) chronicle, acclaimed popular historian Ruth Goodman reveals a Renaissance Britain particularly rank with troublemakers. From snooty needlers who took aim with a cutting “thee,” to lowbrow drunkards with revolting table manners, Goodman’s “gleeful and illuminating” (Booklist, starred review) portrait of offenses most foul draws upon advice manuals, court cases, and sermons. Wicked readers will delight in learning why quoting Shakespeare was poor form, and why curses hurled at women were almost always about sex (no surprise there). “Accessible, fun, and historically accurate” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), How to Behave Badly is a celebration of one of history’s naughtiest periods, when derision was an art form. “Oh, how I wish Ruth Goodman could be my tutor. But settling in for one of her history lessons is better than second best.” — Alicia Becker, New York Times Book Review

Historian and popular BBC TV presenter Ruth Goodman, author of How to Be a Tudor, offers up a history of Renaissance Britain - the offensive language, insulting gestures, insolent behaviour, brawling and scandal of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - with practical tips on just how to horrify the Tudor neighbours.