In Praise of Flattery - 9780803239692

In Praise of FlatteryAuthor(s): Willis Goth Regier\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Nebraska Press, United States\nImprint: University of Nebraska Press\nISBN-13: 9780803239692, 978-0803239692\nSynopsis\nWhere would we be without flattery? Hobbes deemed it an honorable duty and Meredith called it the \""finest of the arts.\"" Alexander the Great applied it as imperial policy; Caesar and Cleopatra were masters of it; and Napoleon devoured it like candy. But flattery also has influential enemies. Cicero called flattery \""the handmaid of vice\"" and Tacitus compared it to poison. In a work as erudite as it is entertaining, Willis Goth Regier looks into flattery as an element as flammable (and as taken for granted) as oxygen. Giving flattery light, attention, and care, Regier treats readers to hundreds of historical examples drawn from the highest social circles in politics, romance, and religion, from the courts of Byzantium and China to Paris, Rome, and Washington, [url] flattee