MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 02661cam a22003974a 4500
001 012325161-3
005 20100420121856.0
008 081203s2009 ilu b 001 0 eng c
010 $a 2008051926
020 $a9780226473154 (alk. paper)
020 $a0226473155 (alk. paper)
035 0 $aocn281091955
040 $aICU/DLC$cDLC$dDLC
042 $apcc
050 00 $aPN6149.P64$bL47 2009
082 00 $a809.7/93581$222
100 1 $aLerner, Ralph.
245 10 $aPlaying the fool :$bsubversive laughter in troubled times /$cRalph Lerner.
260 $aChicago :$bThe University of Chicago Press,$c2009.
300 $aix, 134 p. ;$c24 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520 1 $a"The role of the fool is to provoke the powerful to question their convictions, preferably while avoiding a beating. Fools accomplish this not by hectoring their audience, but by broaching sensitive topics indirectly, often disguising their message in a joke or a tale. Writers and thinkers throughout history have adopted the fool's approach, and here Ralph Lerner turns to six of them - Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Pierre Bayle, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Gibbon - to elucidate the strategies these men employed to persuade the heedless, the zealous, and the overly confident to pause and reconsider." "As Playing the Fool makes plain, all these men lived through periods marked by fanaticism, particularly with regard to religion and its relation to the state. In such dangerous times, advocating on behalf of skepticism and against tyranny could easily lead to censure, or even, as in More's case, execution. And so, Lerner reveals, these serious thinkers relied on humor to move their readers toward a more reasoned understanding of the world and our place in it."--Jacket.
505 0 $aTomfoolery in earnest -- The Jihād of St. Alban -- Burton's antics -- Remedial education in Professor Bayle's history class -- Franklin's double take on rights -- The smile of a philosophic historian.
650 0 $aPolitical satire$xHistory and criticism.
650 0 $aFools and jesters$xPolitical aspects.
650 0 $aLaughter$xPolitical aspects.
650 0 $aPolitical science$xLanguage.
600 10 $aMore, Thomas,$cSir, Saint,$d1478-1535$xLanguage.
600 10 $aBacon, Francis,$d1561-1626$xLanguage.
600 10 $aBurton, Robert,$d1577-1640$xLanguage.
600 10 $aBayle, Pierre,$d1647-1706$xLanguage.
600 10 $aFranklin, Benjamin,$d1706-1790$xLanguage.
600 10 $aGibbon, Edward,$d1737-1794$xLanguage.
600 10 $aMore, Thomas,$cSaint,$d1478-1535$xLanguage.
988 $a20100421
906 $0OCLC