Sign-In
Cart
Boethius: A New Life
Hardcover
PhilosophyBiographies GeneralAncient Rome
Publisher Price: $26.00
ISBN13: 9780300278057
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 25 2027
Pages: 224
Language: English
The life, mind, and world of the polymath Boethius, whose Consolation of Philosophy has endured among readers for fifteen centuries
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 480-524) rose to become one of the most learned men in the court of the Gothic ruler Theoderic I, who ultimately had him executed. Following Boethius's rise, fall, and enduring afterlife, Seth Lerer combines historical research with personal reflection to trace how, for more than fifteen hundred years, Boethius's erudition, intellect, and ambition have stood at the center of Western ideas about the humanities. Lerer's account:
- reads his rise and fall in Theoderic's service as a cautionary tale for any intellectual who seeks political influence
- centers Boethius's philosophical, logical, and musical writings within a wider history of high culture
- makes the case that The Consolation of Philosophy's argument--that our true selves lie with the soul, and our true home is not in the domiciles of despots but the house of God--still speaks to readers searching for practical wisdom today
Reading Boethius's story as a guide to the present as much as to the past, Lerer argues for the place of higher education in public life, the power of art and poetry to inspire and console, and the central role of intellectuals in facing tyranny. Each age makes a classic work its own, and Lerer gives us a Boethius for his own time and ours.
Also from
Lerer, Seth
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover