The World in Time

Erica Benner

Friday, July 07, 2017

Statue of Machiavelli outside the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

The life and thought of Niccolò Machiavelli has been badly misunderstood, argues historian Erica Benner. Far from his usual depiction as a politically amoral henchman, Machiavelli was in fact a prescient critic of princely power and religious zealotry. He lived the problems of government and fought to change a corrupt world.

 

Lewis H. Lapham talks to Erica Benner, author of Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli in His World.

 

Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Lisette Prince through the EJMP Fund for Philanthropy. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Discussed in this episode

More Podcasts

Maris Pacifici, the first printed map to depict the Pacific Ocean, Abraham Ortelius, 1589.

August 04, 2017

The World in Time:

Simon Winchester

Lewis Lapham talks with Simon Winchester, author of Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World’s Superpowers. More

June 14, 2019

The World in Time:

David Wallace-Wells

Lewis H. Lapham talks with the author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. More

Night Scene on the Volga, Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov. The Met.

February 02, 2018

The World in Time:

Victor Sebestyen

Lewis H. Lapham talks with Victor Sebestyen, author of Lenin: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror. More

November 08, 2019

The World in Time:

Andrew Delbanco

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War. More

October 28, 2022

The World in Time:

Stacy Schiff

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams. More

May 13, 2022

The World in Time:

Richard Cohen

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past. More