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Ambition, A History: From Vice to Virtue Kindle Edition

by William Casey King (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
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Is “ambitious” a compliment? It depends: “[A] masterpiece of intellectual and cultural history.”—David Brion Davis, author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World 
 
From rags to riches, log house to White House, enslaved to liberator, ghetto to CEO, ambition fuels the American Dream. Yet at the time of the nation's founding, ambition was viewed as a dangerous vice, everything from “a canker on the soul” to the impetus for original sin. This engaging book explores ambition’s surprising transformation, tracing attitudes from classical antiquity to early modern Europe to the New World and America’s founding. From this broad historical perspective, William Casey King deepens our understanding of the American mythos and offers a striking reinterpretation of the introduction to the Declaration of Independence.
Through an innovative array of sources and authors—Aquinas, Dante, Machiavelli, the Geneva Bible, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, and many others—King demonstrates that a transformed view of ambition became possible the moment Europe realized that Columbus had discovered not a new route but a new world. In addition the author argues that reconstituting ambition as a virtue was a necessary precondition of the American republic. The book suggests that even in the twenty-first century, ambition has never fully lost its ties to vice and continues to exhibit a dual nature—positive or negative depending upon the ends, the means, and the individual involved.

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  1. Print length
    332 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  5. Publication date
    January 29, 2013
  6. File size
    3755 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“In this masterpiece of intellectual and cultural history, Casey King brilliantly traces the tensions and profound changes in the meaning of ‘ambition’ from Elizabethan England to the Declaration of Independence. Long associated with sin, vice, avarice, and all threats to social stability, ambition acquired new connotations as the Spanish and English colonized the New World and then compared themselves with Indians and African slaves. Written with clarity and elegance, Ambition, A History combines astonishing sources and discoveries with larger economic and political contexts usually missing from the history of ideas.”—David Brion Davis, author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World -- David Brion Davis

 “Extremely important, deeply researched, very well-written, and, yes, extraordinarily ambitious. . . King offers a compelling explanation of how ambition became transformed from a sin or vice into a potential (if doubled-edged) virtue that could be harnessed for positive ends.”—Steven Mintz, author of Moralists and Modernizers: America's Pre-Civil War Reformers -- Steven Mintz

"Truly ground-breaking, vital, profound, deeply nuanced and subtle. . . one of the most important and original manuscripts I’ve ever read."—John Stauffer, author of Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln

 

-- John Stauffer

 "Being ambitious is for better or worse a peculiarly American characteristic. This important book helps us understand where we have been and where we are going at a crucial moment for our culture and our role in the world."—Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University, and former Secretary of the Treasury of the United States -- Lawrence H. Summers

About the Author

William Casey King is executive director of the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences, Yale University. He was previously a Salomon Brothers bond trader and executive director of the W. E. B. DuBois Institute of African and African American Research, Harvard University. He lives in Hamden, CT.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00AMYGFVW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; 1st edition (January 29, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 29, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3755 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 332 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

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Casey King

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
8 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Norman M. Canter
5.0 out of 5 stars The devlopment of thinking about ambition
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2013
Verified Purchase
The author describes religious and philosophical attitudes toward ambition as evolving concepts. Although fully researched and academically sound..the book reads like a good novel and holds the reader's interest throughout. The writing is lucid and presentation is logical and progressive. He makes use of ancient definitions and considerable use of the Geneva Bible and marginalia. Poets of a critical period of development in England are included. The story of Dick Whittington is dissected as an historical and multifaceted story. The final acceptance of ambition as a constructive force takes place in colonial America..with interesting consequences in regard to our relationship with England and the formation of a new government.

The great geniuses transcended all limitations of geography, and society; Leonardo, Cellini, Bernini, Michelangelo,J.S. Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, J.S. Bach,Soler,Benjamin Franklin, Publilius Syrus, Cervantes, Galileo,etc. But those who were not immortal giants were products of their time and better demonstrate the evolution that is traced by Dr. King in this work. Even in our era, Einstein, and a few others are so unique that they cannot be classified and defy any concepts or discussions of ambition. The same can be said for Ramon y Cajal, Pasteur, Semmelweis, and Koch of an earlier era in the sciences; in music, Beethoven, Rossini, Puccini, and Haydn easily come to mind.
The author's approach is imaginative and unique...scholarly but presented so that his contribution is available for any reader from casual to academic.
This is a really wonderful book.
6 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Very thought good read
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2023
Verified Purchase
To understand why people think the Lord should bless the USA, We should ask God to h
ave mercy on us. Begin to understand why things happen the way it does.
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CWard
3.0 out of 5 stars Redundant
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2013
Verified Purchase
This didn't need to be a book. The point is Ambition was once considered a vice for religious reasons. Remember, a for most of human history, people were born into a town and stayed their there entire lives. There were not possibilities like today.

So, ambition was a vice. Now, with all the ways a person can improve his or her life, it is a virtue. This main point was presented in the 8 pages of the introduction and then beaten to death for the remainder of the book.

If this is a research project for you, get the book. Otherwise, Amazon's "Look Inside" will give you enough to understand the history of Ambition.

I regularly read non-fiction. Currently, I'm reading The End of Power by Moises Naim, and it is fascinating. Very worthwhile reading.
8 people found this helpful
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