A book for all time: my new favorite author

Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt

In drawing from tales that were ancient in his time, William Shakespeare managed to obliquely (and safely) describe the dangerous politics of life under Elizabeth I. Greenblatt does the same for us with the tyrants depicted in the plays. Greenblatt does a masterful job of describing the characteristics of these tyrants in a way that draws a direct line to the creature in the midst of our politics.

About Richard III: "He is not merely indifferent to the law; he hates it and takes pleasure in breaking it...because it gets in his way and because it stands for a notion of the public good that he holds in contempt. He divides the world into winners and losers. The winners arouse his regard insofar as he can use them for his own ends; the losers arouse only his scorn. The public good is something only losers like to talk about. What he likes to talk about is winning."

There's a lot more to his dissection of Richard III and his similarities to you know who. The problem of fake populism in Julius Caesar. I could go on, but I won't. It's a brilliant thesis, compellingly written.